The Kevin Sheehan Show - Time for Haskins

Episode Date: October 25, 2019

Kevin and Aaron opened with Nats-Astros Game 3 talk. Then Kevin discussed again why the Redskins need to go to Dwayne Haskins the rest of the way. Kevin did a Skins-Vikes game recap and finished up with a Smell Test. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. All right, I am here. Aaron is here, and that's all you're going to hear from today, the two of us. We're going to do a shorter podcast today, in part because I am losing my voice here after a week of doing shows with a cold. But we're going to get to all the important stuff, the baseball, the football, the smell test. That's what we're going to cover here over the next 45 minutes to an hour. and if you want to hear more in depth, you know, on the World Series, you can do that with Tommy and I yesterday. We spent a lot of time talking about the World Series yesterday. But, you know, tonight is a special night.

I'm going to be there tonight. Game 3 at Nats Park with the Nats having a chance this weekend to win a world effing series in Washington. It's really incredible. It's been 95 years since a team from Washington won a World Series and it could happen this weekend with the Nats holding a 2-0 series lead. The scene tonight should be complete bedlam at Nats Park. It's going to be a great scene, and I'm looking forward to it. Annabelle Sanchez is going to start opposite Zach Granky,

who will take the mound for Houston. And for those that have asked, I don't have a really good answer as to why Houston's such a now a climbing favorite, minus 140 now, favorite tonight, other than the obvious answer, I guess, which is Houston won 107 games. You know, and they beat the Yankees in six in the American League Championship Series,

and Vegas doesn't think that they're going to go out with a whimper. And that's basically it. The other factor, Zach Rankie versus Annabelle Sanchez. You know, just based on name value alone, whatever you want to say about Zach Rankie postseason issues or Zach Rankie, Prestor's situations, or Annabelle Sanchez has been so good lately, it's still Zach Rankie versus Annabelle Sanchez.

You know, the public is leaning Washington right now, based on what I've seen. So personally, I think Houston bounces back tonight. I think the Nats are going to win this series. I'll make that very clear. It would not surprise me at all if they win it back in Houston in a sixth game. You know, when they would have, by the way, Strasbourg pitching, because Scherzer would be scheduled to go.

So you got Sanchez tonight, Corbyn in game four, and I'm sure Schurzer scheduled to go in game five on Sunday night. And then you would have Strasbourg on Comptu. complete rest for a sixth and deciding game, a sixth game, excuse me, and then a seventh and deciding game could be Sanchez as the starter, along with a bunch of different people. It would be a lot of different people in that game. But anyway, it's a special night in this city. I'm from here. I grew up here. I was raised here. I live here. My kids have been, you know, born and raised here. And they didn't have

baseball for, you know, several years, and then they had it. I mean, they've had it for the last obviously 14 years, and my kids aren't that old, so they've actually had baseball. I mean, what am I talking about? I didn't have baseball. I barely remember the senators being here, and it's a special thing tonight to see the World Series in Washington. And it'll be weather-wise, perfect tonight, you know, some rain in the forecast for Saturday and Sunday, but nothing right now that looks soaking. So I think they'll get all three games in this weekend. And you got Granky tonight, by the way,

who's been pretty awful in the postseason. He's got a 6.43 ERA. And in the ALDS against the raise, he got shelled in that game. Meantime, we know what Sanchez did in his first start in the NLCS in St. Louis. He had a no-hitter going into the eighth. So it's going to be fun.

It'll be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it. I think it's one of those games, Aaron, that Sanchez has to sort of weather the storm in the first couple of innings and weather the big portion of their lineup. Remember, they won't have Alvarez in the lineup tonight. He's been their DH and he's been a red-hot hitter, so they're going to take a bat out of the lineup with Alvarez. And they're going to leave probably a guy like Reddick in there who can't even make contact. And Correa's really struggled in this series. And Bregman, with the exception of the home run the other night, has struggled in this series.

So something to look at is, you know, do Springer and Altuve and Brantley, you know, continue to hit pretty well? And do they get them off to a good start against Sanchez? And then what do Bregman and Correa in the bottom of that order do? You know, Maldonado or Chirinos, the other catcher. I don't know who will catch tonight. But if they get on a roll here and they get back to what they were as a 107 win team, you know, against Sanchez, it's not going to surprise me. Would it surprise you if they come in here

and they unload on the Nats and generate a ton of offense? Doesn't mean that the Nats aren't going to counter with a big offensive night. But would it surprise you if the Astros, you know, come back here with a really strong offensive performance? Not at all. There's a reason that they were such a heavy favorite coming into this. There's a reason they were considered to be the best team or at worst second best team all season long. This is not. a team that should hypothetically go down quietly. Now this side didn't think was a team that could lose the first two games at home in the World Series either. Right. So we'll see what happens. By the way, you know, I leaned on the unders in the first two games because of the pitching

matchups and they were contrarian plays and they both, both games went over. I'm sorry, leaned over in both of those games. The public believing that they would be, you know, two to one, three to two type games. I won both of those bets on the. overs. Well, tonight's over under is eight right now, which is the highest over under of the series so far. And of course, the public believes that it's going to go over the total tonight with the pitchers. So I would suggest to you that maybe the under tonight is the right play in this particular game tonight. Maybe Granky comes out and pitches well, and maybe Sanchez pitches well again. The Nats, you would think in this particular game,

game tonight are going to have to go to their regular bullpen. There's no Corbin out of the bullpen tonight. There's no Scherzer out of the bullpen tonight. There's no Strasbourg out of the bullpen tonight. You know, Joe Ross, what? You're shaking your head. You think you could see Strasbourg? What? Is this his pitch day? No, no. Well, yeah, actually, it would be his bullpen day. I was more towards Scherzer. If you tell me that they're in a situation where they need to get through, let's say, the sixth inning, I could see Scher pitch an inning on what would be his bullpen day. No, I don't necessarily believe it'll happen. Two days before he'd get a start. It would be his bull, on short rest. Yeah, it would be his bullpen outing, basically.

That would be, you know what? That would certainly go with what Dave Martinez in the way he's been managing, which is, you know, using those guys in, you know, situations where they would have taken a bullpen session anyway. Right. And it's just a live bullpen session. Exactly. All right. So, Again, if you want more on game three, you can go to listen to Tommy and I yesterday. I do think that the Nats are going to lose one of these games, if not two, this weekend. I don't think it's a sweep. I hope it is. Although on some level, I wouldn't mind it ending on Sunday night.

Although Saturday night gives you all night to party and Sunday to party as well. But my sense of it is that the Astros aren't going to get swept in this world. World Series. I would be very surprised if the Nats win this series in any less than five games. I believe it was before the series started. The national sweeping was something like 30 to 1 or 35 to 1. It was an extreme, extreme long shot. And I guessed, and I forget it if it was on radio or on the podcast, I guessed it would be around 30 to 1. And somebody sent me something that said it was between 25 and 30 to 1. Actually, Murray sent it to me. Yeah. All right. Let's get. Before football What do you think this scene's going to be like tonight?

Crazy. It'll be absolutely nuts. See, there is... All right, I'm going to get deep into this here for a moment. And I think you're going to be able to appreciate this because I think you know the difference. So this city as a sports town is... You know, I'm not going to call it unique

because I think there are other cities that are just like this. Where you have had over a long period of time one team that has been the dominant, the dominant interest in the market. It's been the dominant story in the market, and still, I haven't seen the TV ratings for last night. It wouldn't surprise me if the ratings are really good for the game last night, especially since there was no other football on.

But what you've had with the other teams, the Nats and the Caps two years ago in particular, and the Caps before, is this is an event city. 23.5, by the way. The football last night? Oh, oh, football last night. Sorry. Go ahead.

You're talking about game two was a 23.5. Just barely up from game one, which I thought it was going to be more significantly bumped up after they won game one. I was actually a little bit surprised by that number. I thought it would be bigger. I thought it was going to be a mid-to-high-20s number. But anyway, what did it do in Houston, at a curiosity?

Game two, I thought I saw it was like 34, something like that. Yeah. So you have a crowd tonight that, you know, and I've been to most of the playoffs. games over the years. The Nats have had, at this point, they've had two, four, five, eight, 11, 14, I think 16 home playoff games, if you go back. I think I've been to 10 of them. And what I've found over the years is that there is a big bandwagon element to it. You don't get sold out crowds during the regular season for Nats games.

In fact, attendance was down this year. And what you did get early on and it bothered the hell out of me is you got a lot of the people that are like, this is really cool. I know Bryce Harper and I know Steven Strasbourg and I know Jason Worth. No, I cannot tell you who the starting third baseman is or the starting shortstop. But give me some time and I'll get there. but guess what? I got a playoff ticket and I'm going to be here and it's going to be a lot of fun because I'm going to go with my friends who I work with on Capitol Hill and we're going to drink some beers and we're going to get some shake shack and we're going to be on our phones for a lot of the game because we're very important and we're going to miss some of the game and we're going to tell you to stand down when you're standing up with a two strike count but that's what you got. I don't think we're going to see that tonight. I think the crowds for this postseason they've matured, they know how to behave, they know when to get up, they know when to cheer, they are into the game. With that said, it's not the kind of

crowd that has been built up, Aaron, over a long period of time with an arch rival in a spot where they're super hungry, and you get that, you know, you get that almost bloodthirstiness to the crowd. You and I have seen that at Maryland many times, with a long history. of rivals in the ACC in particular, with a long history of a fan base that is incredibly passionate. I know I've talked about this a lot, and some of you don't know what I'm talking about, and others do. The Maryland basketball fan base is as passionate as any in town. I'm talking about the true hardcore Maryland fan base is as passionate as any in town, and you hear it in a blood-thirsty way in a big game in college park.

Same way you used to hear it at RFK and even at FedEx Field over the years. I think that the Caps home playoff games, you know, especially with that hardcore 20,000 that have been there forever, that it's really a bloodthirsty kind of thing when the penguins are in town or the Flyers are in town. I think with the Nats, it's a lot of front-running. And by the way, I think the Stanley Cup was a lot of front-running there, too. But I think, you know, the Nats have definitely a hardcore group, but I think they're more

baseball fans and people who are genuinely excited. But there's a lot of people that don't know that, you know, when Fernando Rodney gets up in the bullpen, that we should all sweat that. Like, they're not that familiar with that level of the ball club. You know, they're not that familiar that Matt Adams is a potential pinch hitter against a right-hander late in the game. Whereas with the Redskins back in the day, you not only knew every single player on your own team, and you knew special teamers by name, you knew everything about the opponent. When you know everything about the opponent and the officiating crew, that's hardcore. and I think, you know, look, I'll be the first to admit.

I didn't sit there and watch a lot of Houston Astros during the course of the year. Part of this, you know, is some front-running bandwagon jumping for me too. Now, I really like the Nats. I love the Nats. I go to games and I watch a lot of the games. But, you know, Houston, I'm watching them sort of like the first time here in the postseason like a lot of you are. But anyway, back to your question. I think it's going to be loud.

I think it's going to be red. I think it's going to be ginned up. And by the way, probably overserved, which will be a good thing. Because it's a Friday and it's a nice day in the fall. It's not going to be cold. And you're going to have plenty of places. I mean, what are the Half Street Fairgrounds? What's Bo Blair's place going to be like?

I'm heading down to it. I don't have tickets right now, but I'm heading down there. And if I have to, you know, hang out in the bullpen, I'm going to be fine with it because I want to be part of that scene. Yeah, and so it's going to be a great, great scene. You know, when you get to the scenes that you get in New York for a Yankees playoff game, or you get in Chicago for a Cubs playoff game, or even, you know, in places like L.A. Where, you know, the L.A. fan tends to be a little bit more laid back or San Francisco. But you get long-storied history ingrained from the time they're born.

these people, that's a, I've been to a Yankee playoff game, Aaron. I went to a Yankee playoff game in the 90s, and that crowd was unbelievable. I think it'll be great tonight. I cannot wait to see it, and I hope they're able to win a World Series. But it's not the same as a Yankee crowd. That's not what it's going to be like. It's going to be great. It's going to be celebratory.

It's going to be red. It's going to be overserved. It's going to be loud. It's going to be raucous. But, you know, if you were too much, measure how important this is to everybody in the park, it would come up well short to what it would be like if you're a Mets fan at a Mets World Series game or a Yankees fan or a Red Sox fan. We don't have the same history. Anyway, enough on that. If you find a Redskins TV number,

let me know. Let's get to the football from last night. The good news is I did hear that Bruce and Dan after the game started to realize, for the first time this year, that if Keenham can't play, they may not make the playoffs. So that's a really good sign. Now, I'm sure the two of them, you know, with their jerseys on, we're trying to talk each other into a 9-and-7 division-winning record, you know, maybe after a few quarters lights after the game. But that's only if Keenham can play the rest of the way,

because they clearly don't think Dwayne Haskins is ready. And that's really where I want to start. I will have a game take, I promise. It's not much of one, but I will have one. It was actually a competitive game. The Redskins were in it in the first half. I had a feeling that they would play it within the number last night. We had a football game last night,

but the more important storyline is that Dwayne Haskins played in the second half because Case Keenham went into concussion protocol, which by the way, nobody really knew. I mean, there was no report of it, you know, end to second quarter, over half time. It was literally, as the Redskins were, taking the field for their first possession of the third quarter that you realized it, and Joe Buck realized it. Anyway, Haskins is the story from last night. He's the only story

from last night, unless for some of you like me, part of the story was to watch the guy that I wish were still here as our quarterback go 23 of 26 for 285 yards and a fourth straight win. Didn't throw touchdowns last night. They were much more conservative as a team last night in their play calling because they realized what the context of the game was, especially in the second half. But Kirk Cousins was pretty damn good last night. Anyway, Haskins played the second half, and he did not play well. He looked as everyone out there has insisted he would look. He looked like he wasn't ready. He wasn't equipped yet to play in an NFL game. Callahan said it earlier this week, and he even said that Dwayne understands that he's not ready yet.

So I would start with this. Ready ain't got nothing to do with it anymore. Get him ready. It's your job to get him ready. It was your job to get him ready three or four weeks ago. This charade, these shenanigans of the last three or four weeks that you're close and you're going to get back into playoff contention was delusional. I don't have any problem with him coming in as a backup for the second half.

He was on the roster last night, the active roster, as the backup quarterback and the starter got hurt. The national media may go nuts again that they've ruined Dwayne Haskins playing him, but imagine if they said, you know what, he's not ready to play, Case can't go back in, let's use Trey Quinn as the quarterback in the second half. What would that do to his confidence? I swear to God, if any of these national pundits start talking about his image or his reputation or his psyche being damaged for good, I'll never watch or listen to one of those people again, because I'll find them stupid and incompetent. And by the way, agendized. Anyway, I will have a major problem as I've already had through the first or for the last three weeks.

if he doesn't start the game in Buffalo and the seven that follow it, assuming that he's healthy. Callahan said last night that if Keenham's healthy, he's still the starter. He did also say that Dwayne's going to continue to be the backup. And by the way, it would not surprise me if Keenham plays in Buffalo if he's healthy. And I hope Keenham is healthy. But if Keenham takes another snap for this franchise, it is the wrong decision. It is okay, people, to say for now, Dwayne Haskins, played poorly last night. He didn't look ready last night. As many quarterbacks in the history

of the game have played poorly and didn't look ready early in their careers. But after playing many games poorly and playing many games as if they weren't really ready to play the games, they eventually figured it out, played much better, and looked ready. Last night was his second NFL opportunity. Give him a break. It may not work out. You know, it may turn out to be this was a horrible mistake at 15 overall. I did not think he was a first round pick. That was my fan media member evaluation of Dwayne Haskins. I said it early in the season last year. Aaron, you remember when we talked to Ohio State football. I said, I know he's a projected first rounder. I don't see it. Cooley did a significant evaluation of tape.

He said, not a first rounder. He's a project. But they picked him. And so now that you picked him, and now that your record's 1 and 7, and now that the other two quarterbacks mean nothing to your future, he needs to be the starter from this point forward. Has to be. Eight starts.

Eight game plans designed around what he does well. Eight game plans and play calling that matches up with, with what he's comfortable with. And by the way, if that's seven plays, I don't give a shit. So be it. Give him something he can do so you can get him out there so he can understand, and they can understand from practical experience, not theoretical discussion, where he is and what kind of future he may have.

These games do not matter in the standings. They have it for a few weeks. They are one in seven and they're lucky they got the one against the worst team in recent NFL history. They were lucky. It was gift wrapped and handed to them. That's it. No more Keenham, no more Colt, no more talking about Dwayne Haskins not being ready. You've got eight starts, eight weeks of practices, eight weeks of taking first team reps, eight weeks of meetings,

eight opportunities to see how he handles. a lot of things, how he handles failure, and there's going to be plenty of it, obviously, if you watched last night. Eight chances to see how he handles the success, and he'll have some of that two. Eight chances to see him compete. That's always big with me, all right? I know you realize that. That is big with me. If I were a scout in any sport, I would never advocate taking a guy with great talent that isn't an innate competitor, a natural competitive being. Those people don't work out if they don't have that. Those people who are non-competitive are long shots. I'll take the guy with lesser talent that hates to lose. I want to find out what kind of competitor he is. I want to find out

what kind of leader he is. I want to find out how he handles adversity. And I want to see how he handles week to week, learning and then improving upon what he failed at the previous week. And by the way, I want to see him face these really good defenses. I want to see him face these really good defenses over these final eight weeks and some really good defensive coaches. I think it's one of those situations, as I said before the New England game, where if you put him against really good competition and really smart defensive coordinators, by the time he starts playing games that matter, it's going to seem easier to.

him. I made this analogy on the show earlier this morning, and I think I've made this in the past. I may have, I don't know. But I've coached basketball for 25 years, on and off, mostly on. A lot of travel, AAU, youth up to high school. And one of the things that I always did is early in the season, early in our practices, we would practice press break over and over and over. again. You know, I had a couple of those teams that weren't overly athletic, but, you know, had some good basketball players on it, and we were playing some high-level athletic teams that I knew would press us full court and try to turn the game into, you know, a turnover machine into a turnover game where we got behind and the game got out of hand. And so as a youth basketball coach, by the way, if you're out there and you've got your son or you're coaching youth basketball and you're going to

step it up to a competitive level, not the rec level. Take this advice, practice, press break, press break, press break. Because if you can't handle the pressure at the competitive level, especially at this young age, you're going to get blown out and it's not going to be very much fun for the kids. Press break over and over again. But anyway, I got sidetracked because one of the things I would do when I knew we were playing much better athleticism competitively,

is we would practice press break against six guys on defense. I would line up six on defense and practice my press break against six guys on defense. And we would do that in practice over and over again. And why did I do that? Because when we got to the game, it seemed easier. Because we were only facing five, not six. And it worked. It worked a lot.

And the analogy here with Haskins is, face these really good defenses in Buffalo and in Carolina and Green Bay and the defenses that you're going to have to face the rest of the way with some smart defensive coordinators like Greg Williams in New York. You see that competition, learn from it because when you get to next year, maybe it won't be as difficult. The Keenham era needs to be over today. I hope he's healthy, in part because I just wish the best for him, but also in part because I would trade him if he's healthy. I would keep Colt McCoy as the mentor and backup in the event that Haskins gets hurt. Callahan with McCoy is not going to give into the temptation that Jay Gruden would have with his son, Colt. It didn't look good last night.

it. It did not look good. So what? He's got 11 days to get ready for Buffalo, 11 days to look better, to improve, to take all those first team reps. And you know what? If he takes all those first team reps and they put together a game plan for him that makes sense for him and it should be all about him now, the rest of the way offensively. I think it'll be better than it was last night. You can't get any worse. You know, I talked about this before also, but I'm going to repeat it, know some of you who listened to the radio show have already heard it. But Urban Meyer, I understand they had a shitload of talent at Ohio State, and they were more talented than most of the teams they faced. And, you know, there's a big advantage in college football with recruiting and being able

to really stockpile talent and basically have a major talent advantage that in the NFL you don't have game to game. It's a much smaller talent advantage when there is one. But Urban Meyer figured out a way with this guy, Dwayne Haskins, who's talented, to have him look over to the sideline, read a picture, clap four times, take the snap and throw 50 touchdown passes. Coaching, coach him up, get him into a position where he's not overwhelmed with a eight-sentence play call. Get him into a position where he doesn't have to think he can just play. that's your job as a coach Kevin O'Connell, Bill Callahan,

Tim Ritey, Matt Kavanaugh. That's your job. That's your only job the rest of the way. By the way, I wanted to mention one other thing. Dan and Bruce picked him. I've learned something here recently that Dan was involved, but it wasn't just Dan. Bruce was all in on Haskins.

You know, the reporting has been, and the information has been that basically this was a Dan stepping into the draft room and saying to the football people, I know you worked on this draft board all year long, and I know you don't think Dwayne Haskins is a first round pick, but I do. We're picking Dwayne Haskins. I believe that Bruce had a lot to do with the selection of Haskins as much as Dan did. And I was thinking about this too after I sort of heard some of this. You know that number seven jersey flap, the Joe T. Jersey flap thing in the organization basically, you know, gave him the jersey, you know, put it on Joe to say no, and they knew

Joe wouldn't say no, which was really a low-rent thing to do in my view. But, you know, Bruce Allen and his father, the Allens did not like Joe Thysman. They like Billy Kilmer and Sonny Jurgensen. There was no love lost between the Allens and Joe T back. in the 70s. So I don't think Bruce Allen was attached to the number seven like the rest of the fans. Remember, George Allen was a great football coach, and he started this whole thing. But they never won the Super Bowl. And they left town, and then Joe Gibbs came in a few years after Jack Pardee,

or after Jack Pardy, the year after Jack Pardy got fired. And the real championship years, all right, the organization's golden age, It's the Gibbs years, not the George Allen years. And I think Bruce sometimes maybe, I don't know this. I think he would like his father's years to be appreciated a little bit more. I appreciate them. I know how important they were. They were the first years I remember.

They were great teams, great memories, but they didn't win a Super Bowl. Joe Gibbs won three of them. Bobby Bethard and Joe Gibbs and Richie Pettibone and Charlie Casserly went to four and won three. That's the champion. era. The championship uniforms are white at home with burgundy bottoms, all right? Not gold pants and burgundy tops. That's the 70s. When you didn't win Super Bowls, you were really good. The championship years were the Gibbs years. You know, Bruce wasn't here for those. Doesn't have the same attachment to Joe Thysman as a Super Bowl winning quarterback and an NFL MVP like we do.

may have made it easier for them to give that number seven to Dwayne Haskins. All right. Bottom line is, I don't give a shit if Dwayne Haskins is ready or not. I think Dwayne Haskins has to start these final eight games, and I think it's incumbent upon the organization and the coaching staff to get them ready to play these games. You have a 2020 draft that is loaded with quarterbacks. And we've already learned from the Arizona experiment that you can,

move on after one year. You can. And it might turn out to be a pretty good decision on Kyler Murray. So you've got to find out. You've got to find out this year. And I don't want to hear about, well, they don't have a great supporting cast around them. Most quarterbacks that get picked in the top half of the first round don't walk in to a great situation. And I also don't want to hear an argument that I've heard people make that, hey, this coaching staff's not going to be here. And, you know, the talent that they're playing with, you know, a lot of those guys aren't going to be there. Really? Terry McCloran's going to be here. Trey Quinn's going to be here.

Kelvin Harmon's going to be here. You know, they had a bunch of tight ends running around there last night. I didn't even know who Hale Hensches is was. Number 88. Jeremy Sprinkles's going to be here. You know, Darius Geis, when he gets healthy, he's going to be here. Chase Ruey is going to be here. No, that's a BS argument.

All right, put him out there. Let him get some chemistry with the players that might be here next year. You're not going to be able to overhaul the whole roster. And I'll mention one last time, and I know this is beating the same dead horse, but 24 quarterbacks have been taken in the top half of the first round over the last 10 years. 20 of them, 20 started before week five of their rookie year. The four that didn't were ponder, were Locker, were Mahomes and Haskins. This is an aberration.

not starting before week five in your rookie year. It will be a major red flag if he doesn't start in Buffalo as a one and seven team with 11 days to prepare. Because what they are definitely telling you at that point is we effed up. We overdrafted him. Our football people were right. We could have gotten him late in the first. We could have gotten him in the second round, but he should not have been a 15th overall selection.

But anyway, I'm not saying that. yet because I haven't seen him take a week of first team reps and I don't want to see it one week. I want to see it these final eight weeks. I want to see them improve. I want to see him fix things that were disasters the previous week. And you can't do that in a two or three week sample size. Like you can't wait until the giant game at the end of the year and say, all right, now we're going to get Duane ready. Can't do that. The coaching staff thing, I would make, I would really give O'Connell a lot of responsibility. You know, this, I thought he caught a, called a decent game, and I'll get to that in a moment. But, you know, Bill Callahan, is he going to be your coach? You know, did you see the Ian Rappaport

tweet last night, a report on NFL network? Ian Rappaport says the Redskins are seriously going to consider Bill Callahan as a potential head coach next year. Now, Rappaport gets it wrong a lot on the Redskins. We know that. but Rappaport had a couple of things from the pregame show last night. He had that not only Callahan but O'Connell could potentially be the head coach next year as well. He also reported, and I'm looking for this because I did see it at some point. So here basically he said the Redskins are going to consider Bill Callahan for their head coaching job and that offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell may get a look as well.

And he also said, the Redskins have said, again, they're not trading Trent Williams unless someone blows their doors off and says that that's the deal. I don't know what they believe is blowing their doors off, but I would take a first round pick right now for him and run with it. And I think that the first rounder from Cleveland, I think a first rounder from Houston, and I think a first rounder very early on from New England was a possibility that they've passed on. I mean, what are they looking for? Are they looking for a Herschel Walker deal? Like, that's not going to happen. He's Trent Williams. He's a really good player.

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All right, a couple of things before I get to the things I liked and things I didn't like from the game last night. You know, that was another super fast NFL game last night. They played a two-hour 39-minute game in the rain Sunday against San Francisco. Last night's game was two hours 41 minutes. By the way, you'll never, rarely, rarely ever see a game at the two-minute warning, 57 minutes of real-time into the game. You know, it's harder to sort of recognize that stuff when it's an 8-20 start.

You know, I don't know if you feel the same way, Aaron. But my NFL Sunday clock, like 1 o'clock games, I know when halftime should be. It should be around 220, 225, 2.30, you know, somewhere in that range. know, a 4-25 start. I know that halftime's going to be right around shortly before 6 o'clock. You know, when you're in the Thursday night 820 start, you don't think really in terms of time necessarily. But last night, the first half two-minute warning came 57 minutes into the game. That's not. That is so quick. In fact, the only way they extended that first half to two hours and 12 minutes was because they hadn't used any of the full commercial break. and they used them all during the under two-minute set there.

By the way, I had no problem with the Redskins calling a timeout after a four-yard gain on first down when Minnesota had the ball. No problem with it. I would have been disappointed if they didn't do it. They were moving the ball offensively. And if they could have gotten a stop and gotten the ball back, they could have had the lead at halftime. And Minnesota had three timeouts,

so they weren't going to run out of time. You guys need to understand that they didn't really help Minnesota out by calling a time out defensively. The other thing real quickly about the game, Minnesota's penalty yardage, seven penalties, 74 yards. Didn't it seem like it was like double that? I mean, the guy Elfline alone, Pat Elfline, the offensive lineman, I don't know how many holding penalties he had. He had at least three. And maybe a couple of those penalties were penalties that were declined.

And that's why I thought that the penalty yardage and the number of penalties should have been higher than seven for 74. were. But the bottom line is if Minnesota didn't have all those penalties, the score would have gotten out of hand. More likely than not. All right, the things I liked. I don't think there's any doubt that this team has some young talent on it. You know, it's not an overwhelming amount of young talent, but they have some talent. Terry McClorin is legit talented. This guy in the third round is going to turn out to be a really, really good pick. for them. He has 4-3 speed. He runs precise routes. He has great feel. He's not the hands catcher that I wish he was, and I bet over the years to come that there are some key drops here and

there like he had in the Miami game. But man, is he a guy that threatens a defense? Those are some pretty good corners in Minnesota. You know, Rhodes is pretty good. Hughes is pretty good. You know, they've got some good corners in Minnesota. Their defense is talented. It's actually given up, and I said this in my keys to the game yesterday, that the Redskins were going to have a better chance to throw the ball against them than run it against them. But the truth is they did both for the first half anyway.

But, you know, Rhodes and Harris and Trey Wains and Mike Hughes are pretty good corners. And none of them could check Terry McLaurin. They're defensive front, and I know they got run on last night, but Ionitis Allen and Payne are talented. They are. It's a really good young defensive set of players. Ionitis at times was unblockable last night. Alan and Payne had their moments too. The defensive red zone sacks in particular were huge. Minnesota is a better run-blocking team than they are a past blocking team, which is why a lot of the balance in the play action really helps Kirk and that pass offense. But they've got, I like their young players.

You know, not all of them. But I was a fan of Kelvin Harmon coming out. I think he's got a chance to be a good player. You know, we've seen what Quentin Dunbar, he's not as young anymore, but Quentin Dunbar's good. He got hurt last night. That hurt them. Landon Collins is a good young player.

I don't think he's an elite young player. player, but he's a good player, I think. Cole Holcomb's a good young player. Man, he can run and he hits. I like Holcomb. You know, there's some other guys we're hoping will be good young players, the quarterback, Haskins, and Geis eventually if he gets on the field. But anyway, yeah, that's the good thing with them, is that they've got some, they have some legitimate, you know, star potential young players. Elite, I don't know if I'd go that far,

though, although McClorin's looking more and more like a steal. I thought Kevin O'Connell really had Mike Zimmer's defense on its heels in the first half. I thought he did a good job with the play calling. They moved the football better than they have in any game this year except for the Philadelphia game in the first half. That's how good the offense was in the first half. It was better than it was in any game this year except for the Philadelphia first half. Adrian Peterson. I just love Peterson. I just, you know, I mentioned earlier, if I were a scout, you know, the thing that I would

be looking for and that I think I would actually be decent in identifying is the guys that hate to lose, the guys that will fight to their death to win, the guys that are super and highly competitive. Adrian Peterson is that man. Nobody on this roster tries harder, runs harder, plays harder, competes harder than Adrian Peterson. I really have come even more so than when he was in Minnesota. Really come to really respect him as a player because of what I've seen him do on bad teams here over the last year and a half. He's a pro and he is really, really, really still very good. By the way, maybe good enough that a team that's in need of a running

back right now might give up something for AP with the way he's running. I like the defensive red zone sacks. I thought they were really good. All right, the things I didn't like. Keenham, you know, he got into rhythm and the play calling helped him out, and they were running the ball, they were moving the football, but, you know, the red zone stuff really hurt him, and, you know, He didn't protect the ball. He lost one fumble. He nearly lost another. That third goal where he stepped up in the pocket should have run it for a touch. And it would have gotten called back because of a holding penalty. But then he threw the ball like into the ground five feet in front of the receiver. He's just okay. You know, he's a good guy. He's a good competitor. You know, he can create a little bit. I'm sure he's perfect with understanding the system and making the play calls and getting to the line of scrimmage. But last night was a better performance for him, you know, but you're not going anywhere with Case Keenham. Fabian Moreau can't play. I think I'm realizing that Fabian Moreau, who's been tried on the outside, he's been tried on the inside.

He got turned around by Diggs last night in such an embarrassing way that, you know, I think we've seen enough that, you know, they missed on this guy. You know, they remember when they drafted him in the third round he was in. injured coming out of UCLA, and they claim that they got a first-round talent in the third round. They seem to do that a lot. They really like to self-congratulate after the draft and before any of these players have played at all. Morose, I think we're learning. He's not very good. I don't know, maybe with a better coaching staff. You know, Ray Horton's a good DB's coach, but maybe with a new defensive staff next year. Maybe Morose got some length. He can run. He can't cover, though.

And we've seen him. On the outside, we've seen him cover the slot. He doesn't do either very well. And then how about the final drive of the game, if you want to look for something that you didn't like? Same thing that happened against the 49ers last week. The 49ers took 619 off of the clock last week on their final drive, leaving 23 seconds left in the game by running the football,

right down the throat of the Redskins. Well, the Vikings last night took over with 8. 42 to go in the game from their own 34-yard lineup, 19 to 9, and they ran the ball down the Redskins throat and ran the clock down to 32 seconds before they punted the ball back. Now, they had to punt after a 14-play drive because they had a ton of penalties on the drive. But the defense really wore down like it did against the 49ers, and it didn't turn out very well there at the end. By the way, I told you yesterday that it's not just Dalvin Cook.

This guy Alexander Madison is the real deal, the third round pick from Boise. I've watched enough of Minnesota this year to know that they've got some good running backs. Cook is really good. Madison's really good. How about the third and in 19 that he ran 28 yards on? By the way, back to Haskins, the last drive that the Redskins had, not the one at the very end. The drive before that that started with like 11 minutes left, I think, in a 19-9 game. It was after Minnesota had a field goal. The Redskins had a third and five. And, You saw them get out of the huddle late. You saw some confusion with Trey Quinn in particular.

They got called for an illegal shift. They also got called for a holding penalty on the play. I do believe that that was Haskins. I do believe that the play got called late incorrectly. There was confusion, and they got flagged for an illegal shift because he didn't know what was going on. So get him ready to call shorter plays, maybe clap a couple of times, look at a picture, look at his wristband, and start throwing the ball sideways if you have to. I don't care what has to happen.

You've got to put a system in that he can run. All right, I think that's it on the game take. I'm trying to think if there's anything else from the game. Kirk Cousins, 23 or 26. I mean, come on. I mean, his, you know, you can, I love the checkdowns, screen thrower. Yeah, they throw a lot of effective screens. And by the way, some of those short passes that he throws,

he throws in an accurate spot that allows for yards after catch. But I think he's near the top of the league in air yards at this point. Near the top of the league in yards per attempt. He didn't have a big game in terms of touchdowns last night, but he was 23 of 26 for 285. Didn't really have to throw the ball much in the second half at all, except when they were really backed up at their own goal line or inside their own 10 and he threw that third down bomb to Diggs.

didn't have Theeland last night. They weren't aggressive because they didn't have to be. They knew that especially with Haskins in the game, they weren't going to need to score much. But I thought Kirk was really, really good last night. I think he's been exceptional over the last four weeks, and I'll just say what I said yesterday. He's probably going to have some bad games, you know,

and he's going to have some games where if everything's working around him, he's going to torch people, which is what he's been doing here over the last four weeks. All right. If you're listening to the show on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, can you rate us and review us if you haven't done that? Also, if you're listening via our app, our brand new app, you can rate us and review us on that. Just go to the app store, just click on your app icon if you've got an iPhone or go to the Google store, if you've got an Android. You can download our app.

It's another easy way to listen to the show and rate us and review us on that favorably, if you don't mind. Don't rate us and review us if you don't like it. But we're excited to be able to offer the show in so many different ways. All right, let's get to the smell test to finish up the show. Kevin looks where the John Q Public is putting their cash and does the opposite. It's time for the smell test. All right. Last week, the worst week of the year with the smell test.

I was two and eight last week. A couple of close losses. How did Washington not cover? They were so right. But I had a lot of wins, you know, building up that, you know, plus 25 game margin that I had. That probably should have been losses. That's the way it goes. But I'm 51, 37 and 1 on the year now, plus 14 on the unit size.

In terms of units, up 14 units, that's really good. You know, that's approaching whatever that is. Aaron, 51 out of 88, that's 59%, 58%. 58% somewhere around there So that's still You're still winning at 5137 and 1 But last week

We took it on the chin And I told you You know you don't beat Vegas every week Even when you have these theories That side with Vegas Last week was a good week For the public better If the public better lost every week

Well then they wouldn't bet anymore Vegas wants them to keep betting Anyway The smell test is just a contrarian handicapping philosophy that goes against public, you know, public perception, public opinion, and it also works in a lot more, like all of my offshore contacts developed over the years as a gambler. I've gotten to know those people really well. And some of you have asked, well, you know, what do they give you? Well, what they do really for me is they confirm

whether or not my public information is correct and whether some of my hunches on where the public money is going in some of these big plays. And a lot of times they'll get back to me and say, no, you're off on that one. That does not fit your play. And they know how I play, Aaron. And with college basketball, I think I've told you this before.

Not in recent years, but 10 years ago, 8 years ago, 15 years ago, I was considered to be a college basketball sharp better. Now, what does that mean? Are they going to not allow me to bet? No. In fact, they wanted me to bet. They wanted to know who I had. But they did limit me.

They did limit my action on college basketball after about three years of destroying a couple of people in particular. Now, they got it back during football season more often than not. You know, I did not build a new house. a vacation house and go on 15 vacations because I won money gambling. Most of you know this. If you gamble long enough, you're not going to win. You're going to lose. And over the years, there is no doubt I've lost more money gambling than I've won.

But the smell test usually keeps you from losing big. And more often than not, has turned out to be a winner at least on the show. All right, let's get to the picks. I'll give you a heads up. You're going to hate one of my NFL picks. you're going to absolutely hate one of them. Tomorrow, Wisconsin, who lost to Illinois last week, and by the way, Illinois and Lovie Smith have been competitive this year,

but they lost the game, a game they should have won. It was a downer because you would have set up this heavyweight matchup tomorrow at noon between two undefeated teams. Now Wisconsin comes in with a loss, and Ohio State comes in basically off of whipping everybody, clubbing everybody. just killing people. And they're like 14 and a half, Aaron. The public is on Ohio State laying the number. I'll take the Badgers plus 14 and a half. They are a good football team. I'll take them plus 14 and half. They're the anti-public side. How is TCU only a one-point underdog at home to Texas?

Somebody explained that to me. Actually, I don't even need the explanation. I'll take TCU plus the point because the world is on Texas. I was at the Penn State game last week where they beat Michigan, and now they're on the road at Michigan State, and they're a six-point dog. Some of you are going to say, no, it's five and a half. I found it at six in multiple spots on covers. All right, so I'm going to take the half point and take the six. I've played Michigan State before this year, and it hasn't worked out,

but I like them tomorrow plus the six. Tennessee, I had them in the smell test two weeks ago, and they beat Mississippi State outright. Last week, they were actually close against Alabama for like two quarters. They're catching four and a half at home against South Carolina who beat Georgia two weeks ago. And by the way, it was tied up with Florida going into the fourth quarter last week. Public likes the gamecocks. Most people think Tennessee stinks.

I actually think they're a little bit better than people think and they're improving. I'll take Tennessee plus four and a half as an anti-public play against South Carolina. And then this one's interesting because it opened Michigan minus 1 and now they're plus 1. But I have some information that says that the Sharps might buy this back at plus 1. The public's all over Notre Dame tomorrow night in the big house laying a short number. Michigan really played well Aaron in that second half against Penn State last week. They really did. They were out of that game 21-0.

They fought back. They had a legit chance to die at late. I'm going to take the embattled Jim Harbaugh's at home in the big house plus the one tomorrow night. Let's go to Sunday. The game you're going to hate. Yes, Denver's the right side. They are the smart, sharp side Sunday 1 o'clock at Indianapolis with the Colts coming off back-to-back wins over the Chiefs and Texans. Denver's only a five-point dog?

Does that really make any sense? Once you see a line like that and you say, well, Denver stinks and the Colts don't. And the Colts are laying less than a touchdown. Well, a lot of my friends will say, well, I'm on the Colts, man. Vegas, they messed up. They done messed up. No, they never mess up.

I knew you were going to hate this pick, but the Broncos are a smell test pick plus the five. The Falcons are plus seven at home against the Seahawks. In free fall, no one's playing the Falcons. I will give me the Falcons plus the seven. But nobody's playing Cincinnati plus 13 less than two touchdowns at the Rams. I'll take the Bengals plus the 13. I got some horrible teams in the smell test this week.

Jarvis Landry predicted a win over the Patriots in Foxborough on Sunday afternoon. And of course, the public believes in Brady and believes that any time you threaten the Patriots, they not only win, they want to run it up. They're laying 12. I'll take the Browns plus the 12. And then finally, the Monday night game features Ryan Fitzpatrick and the resurgent dolphins. You know, they nearly beat the Redskins. They had a chance to beat Buffalo last week.

And the Steelers are laying 14 over the dolphins at home on Monday night. The public's playing Miami. I can't believe that. I'll take Pittsburgh and lay the 14. All right. Wisconsin plus 14 and a half. TCU plus one, Michigan State plus six, Tennessee plus four and a half. half, Michigan plus one, and then on Sunday, the Broncos, Falcons, Bengals, and Browns, and on Monday

night, the Steelers. There it is. Have at it. Enjoy the weekend. I had other, I'm not going to talk about NBA until we get through this World Series. A couple of you actually tweeted me and said, you didn't do anything on the Wizards game. I didn't watch the Wizards game with the World Series on. nor should you have been watching the Wizards game with the World Series on.

I was interested, though, to hear Charles Barkley say that Golden State's not going to make the playoffs this year. He apparently said that last night on TNT, and the Warriors went out and got blown out by Kauai Leonard and the Clippers. All of you know my respect and my love for one Kauai Leonard. I had him during that whole run last year. I think the Clippers, especially when Paul George gets back, are going to be really difficult out west. Leonard's off to a great start in L.A. They're going to do some load management stuff with him during the course of the year, but the Clippers are going to be a really, really dangerous team when we get to the NBA playoffs.

All right, that's it. Enjoy the weekend back on Monday, hopefully with a World Series championship to celebrate and to talk about, and we'll have all the football from the weekend as well. Have a great weekend.