The Kevin Sheehan Show - Time To Blow It Up

Episode Date: December 10, 2018

Kevin starts the show describing the all-too familiar feeling of Redskins' hopelessness and calls for a total organizational reboot. He also recaps the Redskins' ugly 40-16 loss to the Giants in shorter than usual order. JP Finlay/NBC Sports Washington joins the show to discuss if a coaching or front office change is imminent. Kevin then goes "Around the NFL" discussing a wild day with memorable finishes and concludes with "Weekend DVR" and a suggestion to watch HBO's final farewell to boxing. <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. Good evening, everybody. That's right. We're in tonight, Sunday night. We got a lot going on, too. I wanted to get in here early tonight to do the show because I was so excited about that game. I couldn't wait to talk about it. Aaron's back from vacation. I'm excited about that. But hey, Corbyn did a really good job last week, too. So thanks to Corbin. This show is presented by One Donation. Call 86690 Nation. or go to WindowNation.com for new windows and do it before the holidays, because you can save more on that coming up in a bit. All right, look, I'm going to start by admitting this, Aaron. I watched mostly other football in the fourth quarter of that game. I went back and watched Josh Johnson, but all of the one o'clock games, except for one,

and that would have been the one being played at FedEx Field, were incredible. I mean, there were so much drama in the NFL. This was truly, the cowboy game just finished up moments ago. This is one of the better NFL Sundays in a long, long time, with the finish to the cowboy game, with the crazy lateral play Miami miracle over the Patriots. The Ravens Chiefs game was phenomenal. The Steelers' Raiders game was incredible. There were other close games that weren't as significant. But there was one massive blowout, and that one happened at FedEx Field. Look, I'll start with this.

We've been here before. We have. This is not uncharted territory for all of us. Today wasn't new. You know, Spurrier's game against the Cowboys late 2003, 27 to nothing, with the cold rain and sleet falling, and you could see that he could not wait to keep. get to warmer climbs. Zorn late in 2009 against the Giants, the swinging gate game. 45 to 12 was the

final. The Chiefs late in 2013, 45 to 10 in the snow. The Cowboys finale, 2014, 44 to 17. Why do all these games happen at home? All of them are at home. All of these games where you have finally resigned yourself to once again understanding that the organization, isn't fit. It's not a fit organization. It's a bad outfit. You know, it's not good. All of these games where I said we've been here before, they've all been home games. And today was another one. These are the days that we've lived through before. The days where we as fans sort of recognize, there's not a lot of hope. You know, it's a loss so embarrassingly bad that there's nothing to take away from it. Losses that had no end of tunnel light to them. You know, these aren't losses where

you've got a super young team playing a rookie quarterback, where you just have to take your lumps for a few years because there's promise of something down the road. No, there's never any down the road in a Dan Snyder-owned organization. He rarely attracts quality people outside of a few, a few that either he got in the way of and ended up firing, or in one case, Joe Gibbs, who ultimately retired after four years in his comeback. There's never any down-the-road glass half full, because there's rarely a long-term plan. And when there's an outline of a plan, it's not executed well. usually because there aren't enough quality managers in the organization, even if they are given at some point maybe early on some autonomy for a period of time.

Evaluating players, acquiring players, compensating players, developing those players, and then locking them up with some anticipation and vision are just some of the challenges this organization has had for 20 plus years now. all too often, whether it be Spurrier or Zorn or Gruden, the rosters that haven't been evaluated well, acquired well, compensated well, then also aren't coached very well when they get on the field. This one isn't. In the last few years, the three or four out of the last 20-plus years, all right,

the three or four decent years that this organization has had over the last 20-plus, when it seemed like it could be close to getting better. Decent coach, Marty Schottenheimer, Joe Gibbs, Mike Shanahan, few good players that maybe they hit on intentionally or by good fortune. When they've been in those spots, it usually then implodes from within somehow. Marty gets fired because Dan and the owners aren't having enough fun. RG3 gets picked over a borderline Hall of Fame coach and his son, who remember, only got the job because of nepotism. But in reality, could have been, Kyle could have been your next head coach.

Bad personnel decisions, bad PR decisions, internal leaks, low rent moves, McLuhan, Rubin Foster, pushing Doug Williams out there last week to take the heat. You know, and then suing small newspapers that nobody's ever heard of. The list goes on and on. It's a week of shows just to go through the list over the years of the head scratching decisions that sometimes come off as clueless and tone deaf and other times as vindictive and mean. We've been here before. That's my message to you. We've been here before. What's new? Many times. Did you see that half full crowd to start? And then a quarter filled at the end? They were streaming through the turnstiles heading out of FedEx Field before the end of the first half,

except for all of those people wearing blue. I mean, hell, the Giants had just as many fans in the ballpark today as the Redskins did, and they're four and eight. The Washington Redskins right now, right now, as we speak, it's not always this low, but they are one of the worst professional franchises in all of sports. Maybe the worst. name one that's obviously worse.

The Knicks? The Marlins? Name one that's obviously worse. Because no matter who you name right now today, it's probably a debate. It's debatable as to whether or not it's the Redskins or the Knicks or the team you think is worse. We've been here before.

There is a difference, just one difference. there is tangible evidence that the fan base erosion is accelerating. There was a sense of that early in the season, the home opener against the Colts, 50% full for a home opener on a beautiful day off a season opening win, where Adrian Peterson was your starting running back and went over 100 yards in the opener at Arizona. A new quarterback that the organization had fooled some of you into believing was the next Tom Brady. The indie game was a bit different, tangible evidence that the erosion was accelerating, the television rating. I mentioned this last week for the Philadelphia Monday night game.

Here's a game for first place on Monday night football in early December. And the television rating was 50 to 60% less than it would have been three years ago, four years ago. yesterday empty stadium more blue than burgundy there's always been the losing there's always been the stadium issue there's always been the ownership issue the dysfunction but whether it was the McLuhan thing or the cousins thing recently this year started with apathy it wasn't a season that sort of devolved or evolved into apathy it started with fan apathy this year even for the moment when it looked like they might have a decent team, a playoff team. Not a good team. Let's be honest, we felt this way. They were doing some good things. It wasn't yet a good team,

but perhaps good enough at five and two and six and three. But there wasn't much excitement, was there? The Dallas game was a good game in a lively crowd and got watched by a lot of people, in part because of the cowboy fans that live here, work here, and root here. The Houston game wasn't sold out, but it was a lively crowd. I thought that was perhaps the best home crowd of the season as they went into that game at six and three. I mean, it was about as lively as it could be in a game in which your starting quarterback broke his leg. But let me say something that I can say for the first time ever officially in D.C. First time, we can say this definitively or officially.

The Redskins haven't and won't sell out one game this year. Not one. Let that sink in for a moment and tell me that you don't think the erosion has accelerated. That's the difference. We've been here before we have. But there's something a little bit different in that it's accelerating. I'm getting to something here, and I will get to it here momentarily. By the way, I do recognize that there are probably seasons where they didn't sell out every game,

but it wasn't official because they told you that they sold out those games. We all know that we've been to a lot of games, eight of them during a home season, eight home games during a regular season in which there were empties in all of the games because they were bad. But this year it's official. All right, this leads me to this. I said it last week. And before saying it again, I'll preface it with,

of course it would be better if Snyder just sold the team for the sake of the city and the fan base, but that's not going to happen. So if you're even still interested, the only way out of the basement starts with first an epiphany that we just have to pray that the owner has, that he understands that he is the problem.

How does he fix it? Who does he go to to get help? Not exactly sure. I've got a couple of ideas, but it starts with the admission if he hasn't made it before that he is the owner of one of the worst organizations in professional sports. He should start by getting rid of Bruce Allen and Jay Gruden immediately. And then he must find someone to help him pick the next head of this organization. I don't have the confidence, nor to you that he's capable of determining who that person is on his own. Whether it should be the guy from Minnesota, George Patton, or Nick Casero in New England, or Joe Douglas in Philadelphia, or Will McLeigh in Dallas, there are a bunch of guys out there that are likely going to be hot GM candidates. He needs someone to help him pick the next guy, a consultant. Maybe it's Brian LaFamina who's in the organization right now. I doubt it.

Maybe it's Joe Gibbs comes back to consult. Assault Dan Snyder to find the next head of the organization. If it's not Gibbs, how about Bill Parcells? What's he doing these days? Look, if Baltimore doesn't make the playoffs, and they're damn good. I think I'm going to be right on them. I'm right on their defense. That defense nearly won the game by itself today.

But if they don't make the playoffs and they decide John Harbaugh is not good enough for them, you go after John Harbaugh and Eric DeCosta and you give them the, organization to run and whatever their price tag is, you pay it. I don't have all the solutions. I can tell you this, Chris Cooley could help them. Seriously. You know who has a great sense of football talent and quality people intuitively? He has that sense, is Cooley.

He had Sean McVeigh as a head coach long before any of us, any of you, knew who he even was. He said while most of you and a lot of you were saying Kyle Shanahan, he's terrible, he sucks. The only reason he's got a job is because of his father. And he said to me, I'll never forget, this was 2013. Do people really think that? I said, yeah, a lot of people actually think that. I said, I bet some people in the organization think that. He's like, they're insane.

He's going to be a head coach in the next three to five years. What are they talking about? I'm like, sometimes that's what it looks like. I never felt that way about Kyle. Go to Cooley, Dan. Go to him. Ask him to help you. He has real football and people instincts.

Cooley likes Kyle Smith a lot. He's in the organization. Brian Lafamine is smart enough to run the business side. Kyle may be smart enough to run the football side. This I know, though. Bruce and Jay. those dogs don't hunt anymore. They don't hunt.

It's over. Unless, of course, Josh Johnson becomes the savior. As I said, we've been here before. All right, let's get to the Game Take because there was so much to this game. And actually, I have a few thoughts on Josh Johnson. Pay attention. He's Kevin's Game Take.

All right. There was a game. I've been doing this for years, sort of this day after post-game thing. The good, the bad, some of the other things. And many times, I've been here before. As a radio broadcaster, now a podcast broadcaster, I and many others in the market have been in this position, late in the season, having to talk about games that don't really matter.

I thought we were going to have December games that really mattered. Actually, you know what? If they won three in a row with Josh Johnson. Let me start with a couple of things that were good. And I will start with the backup to the backup, to the backup, to the back, to the starter. The fourth quarterback this year, Josh Johnson. Look, there was no pressure. The Giants had pretty much checked out with a 40 to nothing lead.

40 to nothing. He had some easy stuff against some backup players, but still, he was much more of a playmaker than Sanchez. Actually, he was more of a playmaker than we've seen Alex Smith be a playmaker, and Colt McCoy be a playmaker. He had a live arm. That was one thing I noticed about Josh Johnson. The arm was lively.

He can't really throw it. At least he could today. He was 11 for 16 for 195 yards with a touchdown and a pick. The one after Josh Doxon's taunting penalty, the interception, I almost don't blame him for it. He's trying to come back to Doxon, his guy. Get to Doxon in a moment. He used his legs to run for first downs and a touchdown, seven carries, 45 yards. It didn't take long for Jay Gruden to say, yep, he's my starter.

And one of the reasons he said it is he said he knows the terminology, indicating or implying that perhaps Sanchez had yet to learn it. But I think there was more to it than just Sanchez didn't call the plays as well as Josh Johnson did. Why did Josh Johnson know the terminology and know the plays? Because he's been with Jay Gruden before, and Gruden pointed that out last week. Look, you're at that point in a season where injuries and benchings usually lead to younger quarterbacks getting a chance to play for your team and being in the mode of, hey, let's see what the new young guys got. Johnson's 32 already and he's getting ready to suit up

or he was getting ready to suit up for the San Diego fleet of the American Alliance Football League, whatever the hell that is. He's played on 12 including this one, 12 NFL teams. But it sure didn't take long after watching Sanchez who was damn if he didn't win the press conference the other day.

He looked more like a guy today who should be hosting a game show. not playing football. Josh Johnson, he was impressive. I mean, it was 40 to nothing. You know, 40 to nothing. He's going to start next week against one of the most talented defenses in the NFL in Jacksonville.

They shut out Indy two weeks ago and then laid an egg against the Titans on Thursday night in the short week, but now they'll be well-rested. And if they're interested in the game, which may be, you know, something that hangs in the balance, who knows if they'll be interested, but if they are, I'm going to make a prediction right now that Josh Johnson

won't look as good against Jacksonville as he did today in a 40-0-0 game. On my Things I Like the list, Tressway, he's got to be the team MVP this year, right? Who else is going to be the team MVP? Nobody at this point, you could have made a case for a defensive player earlier in the year, but not after the past few weeks. No, you can't. He at one point yesterday had punted three times in the first 10 minutes of the game. That means he was on pace for 18 punts in the game.

He only punted eight times. It seemed like it was going to be well into double digits with the way the game started, but Josh Johnson came in, got some drives going. He averaged 51.1 per punt, gross. And gross punt yardage, not that it was a gross average. three more inside the 20-yard line. He's been great all year long. The two-point conversion plays.

The reason I put this on my good list is I wanted to basically point out something that I thought was bad about them. They were two-for-two on the two-point conversions. The second one was after, was that another Morgan Moses-Fal start? It was something. So they did it from the eight-yard line. But in all seriousness, this is where you as a head coach have to think. Okay, we're in the midst of complete and utter dismal drudgery. This is depressing the entire day, but it's one loss.

It doesn't count as 10. Feels like 10 only counts as one, and we're down 40 to nothing. Let's save our two-point plays, our fancy two-point plays, for a game in which we need the two-point conversion. That's what I would say. I'm being serious here for a moment. You may laugh and say, well, when are they going to need it the rest of the year? They're going six and ten.

That's what's going to happen. You may be right too, but next week, if they're down 17-9 late, and that's about what the score will be, something like that, and they score touchdown, a miracle touchdown, be nice if Jacksonville hadn't just seen them with two-two-point conversions. All right, let's get to the list of things that were not only bad, but in some cases, pathetic. Start with the coaching. Look, injuries don't get Jay Gruden and his staff a free pass from what we watch today.

They don't. It was a pathetic display, utterly predictable in hindsight, from the choosing of Mark Sanchez instead of others, including Johnson, by the way, to the caving to the wishes of his team to practice less last week. It was a week that he didn't have enough focus and he made it worse with some of the decisions he made. The plan offensively from the jump wasn't good enough. Didn't make any sense. You weren't going to run the ball. So do what you do well.

Scheme up your quick game, your West Coast game. Where has that been this year? With Smith, with Sanchez yesterday. I know the injuries hurt. I get it. I know a lot of the stupid penalties. Your team wasn't prepared to play. They had seven penalties in the first half.

But let Sanchez throw it in the quick game. All right, you can't drop Mark Sanchez back. I couldn't stand some of the play calls. All right, you lose Jordan Reed. He leaves early. You got down-and-distance issues because of the penalties. But dropping Sanchez back instead of quick throws on early downs, was a losing strategy.

Why does Morgan Moses false start so much? At some point, coach him up not to do it anymore. What the hell was the fly sweep to number 16 for? Who is that? No readiness by your offense and its lead coordinator and play caller today. That's you, the head coach, none. No readiness at all. The offense was bad with Smith, all right?

Probably would have been bad with McCoy. and it was bad with Sanchez. The injuries have made it harder. I'm never one to say, you know, injuries are just an excuse. No, they are legitimate reasons. The NFL is a league of attrition more times than not. And when I say more times than not, 90% of the time, if you have the injuries that the Redskins had last year and this year, you're not going to be a playoff team. I understand that. The injuries were actually worse last year. just not a quarterback. Gruden's coaching his final games in Washington, period.

He's a nice guy, but like I've said for three years running, he's an average head coach. He and the guy that picked him, Bruce Allen, have to go. They've got to go. If that were to happen tomorrow, we will do another podcast tomorrow. Let me just say that now, because anything's possible tomorrow. I'm not anticipating it.

But I wouldn't be shocked by it. Also on my not very good list was the starting quarterback today. Look, his coach didn't help him out much, but he was dreadful. Didn't protect the ball, even though the interceptions were off deflections. The first one looked from the end zone view like it was going to get picked anyway, had it not been deflected. I'm not sure if they'll keep them this week. They might get rid of them, but I don't know who they're going to bring in.

Stop with the Kaepernick stuff. It's not going to happen. You know, I said this last week, and I'm going to defleck. FNJ on this. He wanted guys that were, as he said with Josh Johnson, just more familiar with his terminology so they could actually call a play in the huddle. You're

probably right. Capernick would have been better than Sanchez. Johnson's going to be the starter next week, as we mentioned. Sanchez was awful. I guess he's got to keep him this week to be the backup to Josh Johnson. What I would do is I would try to find a young quarterback out there that's sitting

out there in somebody's practice squad and bring that quarterback in. That's what I would do right now, thinking about the future. Because you don't want Sanchez coming into the games as a backup. On the things I didn't like list. The defense. The defense can't stop the run anymore. What happened? It went from being a top two or three rush defense in the first seven games of the year to the worst, I think, over the last four games. Or maybe bottom three or four. I think right now they're, they've gone from number two or number three. three to outside of the top 10. But it's been too easy. Tevin Coleman, Barber, Miller,

Elliott, Adams, and now Barclay. Just a total turnaround defensively this year. But really starting with the team's inability to stop the run consistently, the third down defense started to hemorrhage even before the run defense weakened. It was 29th coming in. Actually, the Giants were four for 13, so didn't really hurt their bad average on third. down yesterday, but the Giants weren't really trying after they got up 40 to nothing. On my things I didn't like list, ha-ha Clinton Dicks, enough. Get Monta Nicholson into the game, please. I want to see young players. This was a blown trade for a player, and I said it at the time, Aaron, when they made that trade. What did I say to you that my default is what? Why are the

Packers doing this? When it comes to a Redskins trade, over the last 15, 18 years. My default is to think of it from the other side. Like, something may be wrong here because the Redskins have been on the wrong side of most of the trades they have made during the Dan Snyder era. So I did some of that research and came in here and said, you know, there's a whole lot of people that say, ha ha, Clinton Dix has a couple of plays here and there, but for the most part, he's not very good. He's not a good tackler. He checks out of plays. He He doesn't look like he's interested at all in tackling anybody. Fourth rounder.

Could he use the fourth rounder. Drop passes early in the game. Reed, Crowder, Thompson, and then Crowder on the one shot that Sanchez was able to get off and take down the field, Crowder dropped. The Doxon penalty. I don't know if he did enough. I don't know what he said. But good God, Josh Doxon.

You're actually starting to play some. decent football. You're down at the two-yard line. You can't get a 15-yard penalty. That's a loser play. He's getting better, though. The first half was one of the worst halves in franchise history. 34-0 was the score at halftime. 284 yards to 51 for the Redskins. The Redskins had nine drives in a half. Do you know how hard it is? to have nine possessions in a half? Many teams have nine possessions in a game. Guess how many points off those nine drives?

Zero. Seven penalties in a half. Two turnovers. A couple of other things as we get to some of the observations from the game. More injuries, Jordan Reed. Was anybody else hurt? Did I miss anybody? You know why?

I don't have the injury report? Because I was watching better games from about quarter of four until about seven four, eight o'clock tonight. Do you know, though, I did think about this. You know, early in the game, I thought that punt by the Giants down to the Redskins' one-yard line in a zero-zero-zero game. Because, you know, the Redskins stopped the Giants on their first two drives. Wee! It's nothing, nothing.

There were four punts in the first, I think it was the first four minutes of the game, four punts. five minutes of the game, whatever it was. But the punt that knocked it down to the Redskins one-yard line, I mean, after seeing the Redskins first two drives, or the first three drives, because they had already punted three times, you were like, oh boy, this could be a game changer.

And a game like this, this could be the game changer. And there was a pick six, you know, on a deflected pass. It really, again, as I mentioned earlier, if you were standing behind the quarterback from that view that they had, it looked like he was going to throw a pick anyway. But anyway, I kept thinking at 7-0. This may be the play we looked back on at the end and say that was the play that won the game for the Giants. A special teams play down to the one-yard line.

How about that coming right after the Stroman illegal fair catch call? Yeah. But it was that other – there was two penalties. They didn't call – it was the holding plus that, yes. The holding actually, I believe, was on Nicholson. Right. I think it was on Monta-Nicholson, even though the referee said it was on Stombley. Stroman. But no, that play was not a real decisive play in the game.

Well, I'm just saying because the one yard line also set up by Stroman deciding not to field the ball. Right. Exactly. Zach Brown was benched. Was there a reason given in the postgame why Zach Brown was benched today? Not that I heard. I don't, I'll tell you what, you know, I know there's a lot of criticism of Zach Brown, and I get it. You know, he misses. lot of plays he's not good in coverage or a lot of things he doesn't do great all of that is true he's also one of the only guys that has the kind of game-changing speed on defense that i just wouldn't take

him off the field that much in games that you have to have but he must have done something to get benched um he uh in in in the game um Zach is Zach Brown was was benched for the start of the game. Okay, but he came in and he came in and played. You got the quote? Yes, I do have a quote from Gruden here. There was one in the middle of all that. Zach Brown missed a couple of days because he was six, so he started based with Sean Dion Hamilton and went on from there, then Sean Dion got hurt and Zach Brown came back out. Got it. Actually, I thought Sean Dion Hamilton was pretty good in the game. Olivier Vernon, I just wanted to make this comment. He is so good. God, I wish the Redskins over the years had a pass rusher. He's a true disruptor. The Giants, by the way, are good right now. You know,

you can see, we've seen it the last month. Barclay's incredible. I mean, good God. And by the way, remember a few weeks ago against the Eagles when he only had four touches in the second half and everybody basically attributed the loss to Pat Shermer for giving him, you know, 18 touches in the first half and only four in the second? Well, he only had four touches in this game in the second half. He was 10 carries for 159 in the first half and he finished with 14 carries for 170 yards. That, by the way, boys and girls would be 12.1 yards per carry. It's pretty good. A couple of other quick thoughts in addition to it. That first half, when they got the ball back with just over two minutes to go and they actually were thinking about going hurry up, I was

absolutely convinced that that was going to be the drive where Sanchez gets him in field goal range. And then everybody would have been saying today, why didn't they just open the game and hurry up? Why didn't they just open the game and hurry up? Yeah. Anyway, there you go. That was it. That's all I got on the game. I want to tell you about Window Nation. If you've been thinking about new windows, it's no risk to give Window Nation a try. This is what I would ask you to do. and Aaron, they own Wind Donation, they launched Windonation as entrepreneurs. They've built something very special. They've supported this podcast. They've supported me really over the last decade and everything that I've done. And I'd ask that you think about Window Nation and just give them a call

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All right, J.P. Finley from NBC Sports, Washington will be joining us shortly. But since this is truly sort of in the post-game mode, and I bet a lot of you haven't heard it, I want to play Jay Gruden's very brief press conference. I mean, it was just a few minutes. I want to play it. Have you be able to listen to it. I know I received a lot of tweets today from people saying, is he going to be gone?

Is this going to be one of these Snyder, you know, Norff Turner situations, firing him before the end of the season? I don't think it'll happen. I'm not discounting it as a possibility. It's not that I'm trying to straddle the fence here. I think anything's in play right now after what we witnessed yesterday. But I do think that Snyder over the years has, has understood that there's not massive benefit by firing everybody before the end of the season.

Now, he did fire Vinnie Serrato after the swinging gate game in 2009. That also against the Giants. And he does have right now, which is different than Zorn, he's got ex-head coaches on the staff in Bill Callahan and Jim Tom Sula. So it's possible. And if it were to happen, I promise, we'll come in here tomorrow and do another podcast to address that whole issue if it happens tonight or tomorrow at some point. But I want you to listen to Jay Gruden. This is his press conference shortly after the game.

Jay, is it kind of crazy to think that just four weeks ago you guys were six and three and two games clear in the division? Now you're kind of dealing with this, maybe starting a fourth quarterback next week. Yeah, yeah, it's tough to do with. You know, it really is. unfortunate. Our guys continue to compete. That product we put on the field today was not a reflection of the guys' work during the weekend and in practice. However, it did look bad and it's a reflection of all of us. But I think our players competed and did the best they could. Mark Sanchez, Josh Johnson, you can't say enough about them coming in here and really short notice to try

to learn an NFL offense play on a Sunday with limited reps. So, you know, they competed did the best they could at the end of the day. We weren't quite ready. Jay, you at, on the offense, we all know the injuries on defense, you've been relatively healthy. How do you explain the drop off? And again, today, just, you know, just the play that they put out there on the field. Yeah, started out really well, you know, start out good.

You know, and first quarter, we were competing going toe to toe. Yeah, we weren't getting any yard in the offense. We're three and out a lot. And we got backed up and threw a pick six. And after that, I think it was kind of like a punch in the gut to everybody. I know they had a nice drive to get it to 10 to nothing. We got another quick three-out, I believe, and then I think Saquan might have broke one.

You know, for the most part, I don't have an explanation right now as far as what the breakdowns were, who they were, why they were. I just know that Saquan is one heck of a back, and we missed some fits. I saw some glaring missed fits for whatever reason. This late in the year shouldn't happen.

And that's something we should be detailed up on right now, but today it wasn't the case on especially the long run. I'm going to interrupt it there for a sec. A couple of things real quickly. Number one, you know, he spoke there at the beginning, and there may be more of that coming up about how they worked hard in practice. Let's not forget that there was that quote from Gruden at the end of the week about how some of the players were, you know,

I'm paraphrasing at this point, whining and complaining about practice and too much of it and hitting and the whole thing. And he sort of caved to that. So, you know, you're going into a game you have to have, all right? Put all the injuries aside and put all the outside noise about the season being over. As a head coach, you're a 6 and 6 football team trying to get to 7 and 6, and potentially, even though it didn't play out this way because Dallas won, potentially getting yourself into a three-way tie,

and you didn't really prep for this game in a way that made sense. I also want to play while we're talking about this specific quote from Grin. I want to play you something from DJ Swearing. right here that I got from the locker room. Let me just play this really quick here. Right. Gruden said that this, what we saw on the field today wasn't indicative of what's going on in practice. He said that it just wasn't a true reflection. No comment.

Yeah, because he's been the one that's been complaining about practices being too light, too much joking around going. We heard Minnowski. That was another part too. When I, when I talked about Gruden and the team being unprepared. That was a staff indictment as well. No one was ready, except for Tressway, who seems to be ready every week. Of course, he's getting the most work of anybody. I think right now Tressway

has got to be among the top five in the league in total number of punts. All right, let's get back to where we were with Gruden. Jay, at this point, do you see any changes coming up in the next couple days? Like, changes you guys will make yourself on the field, new coaching staff, anything in there?

No, not really. No, no. We have game to win next week in Jacksonville, and we've got to go about and try to figure out a way to do it. Jay, would Josh Johnson start based on what you just saw a week from now? Yeah, we'll get Josh ready to go. I think, you know, the element that he brings a little bit, knowing the system, and, you know, he came in here, and he was playing pickup basketball game and came in here and he was playing in the National Football League on a Sunday. So, hats off to him for picking it up, but fortunately, he's been around me for a while and can handle the terminology and did a pretty good job moving around.

You've got 100 injuries everybody knows, but do you feel your job is in any jeopardy? Oh, my job's in jeopardy every week. So, you know, I just got to go about and do the best I can, get these guys ready to go, and we'll continue to do that. Let me interrupt there for a sec before we play the rest of it. That is, in moments like this, and in a lot of you over the years, I've gotten this from some of you. That is a totally appropriate question, and it has to be asked after a game like the game today. must be asked of a head coach who is, who had just coached a game at home as a six and six team for a potential first place going into one o'clock. They had a chance to be in first place, a game in which your team trailed at home 40 to nothing at one point.

And this was a year in which Jay Gruden, let's not forget what Jay Gruden said before this season started. there are no more excuses. I got to get this team winning and I got to get to the playoffs. He knew what was at stake coming into this season. I am going to be absolutely floored if Dan Snyder brings back Bruce Allen and Jay Gruden at the end of this season. And I like Jay personally. He is a good dude. He's a guy's guy, all right?

Good sense of humor. I think he's been great with the media over the years. more comfortable than anybody else in the organization in front of a mic. But he's just an average coach. And at some point, you have to look at the totality of the situation, which is you've got fans leaving in droves. This thing's eroding before your very eyes. And bringing him back with Bruce is a non-starter.

Go ahead. Jay, what did not work for Mark? What did work? Nothing that worked. So nothing worked, so everything did not work. You think that is? I don't know. I don't know.

We, you know, I don't know. I'll check it out. I think maybe missed a couple of throws, protection issues. You know, when you're talking about a quarterback we just got here, and you asked me why everything went wrong, there's a lot of different reasons. But we do understand how difficult it is for him to come in a short amount of time to play.

Okay. Is there a disconnect then between what happens? happens during the week and what happened on the field today as far as in terms of preparation. And if there is a disconnect, how do you fix that? I don't know if there's a disconnect or not. We have to check the run fits. Are you talking about defensively, your offensively, everything? I'm just talking about you said, like you had a good week, you guys were ready to compete,

but it didn't look that way on the field. So there seems to be a disconnect. Yeah, there's disconnect. We have a quarterback that just got here, and we have two offensive guards. We named starter yesterday. So there is a disconnect there. There's three of our starting 11 guys that just got here a little bit ago. So there is a disconnect there.

We also lost Jordan Reed in the first quarter. There's a major disconnect there. That's four pretty good players or four key players that aren't out there or what have you. So two starting guards, a starting quarterback. I'd say there's a disconnect there. All right. Well, we got Tommy's disconnect question. Thank God we waited for that.

He pissed the coach off a little bit there. But Tommy, and he'll be in Tuesday, I think what Tommy was trying to get to was the fact that they had talked about lessening up in practice, sort of, you know, reducing the contact, reducing some of the practice, caving to the wishes of some of the players this week that felt like they didn't and were too tired and beat up to practice. Yeah, that wasn't going to make a difference either, more likely than not. need to play any more of that. It's, it's, uh, it's really, it's amazing how much things changed in such a short period of time. I, I, look, we went through these, these weeks with wins over the giants in the Meadowlands and the Buccaneers 16 to 3, but giving up 500 plus yards. And it just felt a little bit fraudulent. But I, but, but the model was working, you know, do things smart, you know, don't turn it over. Don't commit dumb penalties. Win the field position.

battle, all of that was keeping them in games. So what's changed? It's crazy not to say that the injuries haven't impacted that. It was a tenuous situation to begin with, and it was a bit of a house of card situation anyway. But once you started taking really good players out of the lineup, Brandon Sheriff in particular, out of the lineup on offense, you know, obviously one quarterback after another, it was going to be difficult. I feel for Jay. I do because I do like him personally. And no coach should be

judged on the two seasons last year and this year solely on those two seasons. It's got to be more than that. I mean, we got to go back. And I would toss 2014 out too, to be honest with you. The things that have made me more upset over the years with Jay Gruden, the giant game at the end of 2000. that team was not energized for that game. The early season games, the openers until this year, where they didn't really seem to be ready for those games, the consistent clock management errors in games that have cost this team. Those are the things that are upsetting. I actually thought last year Jay didn't do a terrible job coaching that team to seven and nine. I think they had more players on injured reserve last year than they do this year.

And this year, I feel for them. I do. But ultimately, this team at 5 and 2 just didn't look the part anyway. They were doing certain things. And I love all of you people that are going to tweet me and say, the difference is that Alex Smith wasn't turning the ball over. Do you think turnovers really would have made the difference today? They were down 40 to nothing. They couldn't stop the run today. They couldn't move the football today. You know, those, how many turnovers would Alex Smith have had in the Dallas game or in the Philadelphia game or in this game? He had two in his final game. And just every time I mention Alex Smith, I'm also thinking simultaneously, I would hope all of you are about just, I hope he gets healthy. I hope he gets healthy. Adam Schaefter reported, or maybe it was Ian Rappaport reported this morning that, I forget who reported it now, my fault. I think it was Rappaport actually. that I'm thinking about it, reported it that he won't be ready for the beginning of the 2019 season. And that's another, you know, again, it's hard to see glass half full because that move is

costly, costly. Kendall Fuller made a really good play at the end of the game today. Bashad Breland had a pick six today. Derek Carrier caught a game-winning touchdown pass today. Do you need anything else to brighten up your day? All right, let's bring in J.P. Finley from NBC Sports Washington, who had to suffer through all of it, all 60 minutes of the 40 to 16 loss to the Giants. I was at least at home able to turn the channel to the Red Zone to watch what turned out to be honestly. One of the better NFL Sundays I can remember in terms of just some of the incredible finishes all day long, and I'm going to get to some of those. We're going to go around the NFL here shortly. But I guess I'll start with a big picture question.

Do you think Jay Gruden is in trouble as in like imminent trouble? I appreciate you really rubbing it in how you got to watch all the other games. And I was stuck watching the skins get beat up by the Giants. That's what I'm here for. As for Gruden, I contend this is the hottest his seat has ever been. I think for the first time and a long time he is in real danger of perhaps losing his job. I don't know that it will happen,

but I think the way this kind of, you know, they're falling off a cliff, and the Giants weren't a particularly good team. They were playing without Odell Beckham, and they still were able to get up 40 to nothing. A couple things I do think are helping Gruden is that Mark Sanchez is terrible. The decision to roll with Mark Sanchez was bad,

but not many teams are. equipped to win when you get to a third stream quarterback. So there is kind of a built-in excuse for that. And the other thing I think for Gruden is, I believe the defense has been so bad in the last month, six weeks, that maybe it can be sold as, look, we're going to change the coordinator again. We're finally going to get this defense right. We saw at least early in the year the defense could play at a higher level.

We believe in our personnel. Now we just need somebody to maximize the players, maximize the talent. Whose decision was it to sign Mark Sanchez? It just seemed like you were, and I may have read it wrong, but you were saying that perhaps Dan and or Bruce will take him off the hook for that. No, I didn't mean it that way. I think they were more off the hook because they lost Alex and Colt. And by the time you get to a third stringer, especially because they signed Sanchez because they wanted a veteran backup for Colt.

It was more about rounding out the QB room. And I don't think, I'm not sure they go to Sanchez when they did if they thought he would have to start games right away. I almost wonder if they would have gone to Josh Johnson if they thought he would start games right away. because Gruden talked a lot about the familiarity with his system and his ability to know the terminology. And I think one, Johnson just offers something entirely different than Sanchez with, you know, he's fast, he's got a really strong arm. But he also could get the play calls and understand things. And I don't think Sanchez was anywhere close with some of that stuff. Yeah, no, I get that.

Sanchez wasn't, you know, brought in to start. He was brought in to be a backup, if not sort of a mentor like he was to Dak Prescott as an example to Cole McCoy, to Minnowski, to Minusky, real quickly. Haslett, Joe Barry, Greg Minusky, passing on Wade Phillips. We all know what Wade Phillips said. He said it was a confusing interview with Jay Gruden, didn't understand basically what he was trying to do, shocked that he wasn't really seriously considered. how do we take Gruden off the hook for his defensive coordinators? I don't think you can at this point.

They've kind of undermanned the position for a while. Guys that weren't hot candidates. I'm blanking on it. Was Mike Petten? I'm trying to think of some of the guys that when they hired. Yeah, Petton was one of them. Yeah, but Wade Phillips, they interviewed. And because, you know, his son was in the organization.

That was two times ago, right? That was the Joe Barry hire. Yes. Yes, you're right. You're right. Even the more recent hire was underwhelming. And, you know, players like or like Minowski, there's a whole lot going on in the defensive half of the locker room. And I don't, it seems very volatile.

It seems like you've got a lot of highly opinionated. and influential defensive players that are approaching their width and I don't know if it's with one another or with the scheme or what, but if there's another game like today, it's going to be harder and harder for these guys to kind of hold it together. Both Josh Norman and DJ Sweringer after that Giants game did a good job of not saying any real, like, inflammatory quotes. but there's still three games left. DJ has said plenty already this year about his teammates and practices and coaches and all sorts of stuff.

But, you know, one thing that I think might have sailed under the radar, I wrote about it, but I wrote about it like four days after it happened. So Greg Mniewski talked about he tries to keep practice really light because he doesn't believe guys can focus for an hour. Yeah, for more than 50 minutes. Right. And when he said that was right as all the Reuben Foster stuff was happening,

so it never really got the attention that I think maybe it should have. But that's a pretty damaging quote. I don't know. I think there are a lot of, when or not it's true to admit that and say it publicly and kind of like to diminish or devalue your own practice time?

I just don't understand that. Well, I mean, you have that combined with Jay Gruden essentially implying that he caved to the player's wishes for easier practices last week, right? Well, no, he was saying that he put them in pads even though they didn't want to be and that there was some griping about it and he had to explain, look, we got a new offensive line, unless there was a second scenario that you're talking about. Look, I, back to Minnusk, there's a lot of stuff there. Back to Minuscchi, though, just for a second. Do you think, because I started by asking you, do you think that, you agree that his seat is hot? I mean, I think it's too hot. I think it'll end, whether it's at the end of this season or before it.

And I would guess more likely than not at the end of it. But do you think, for Jay? For Jay. But I'm asking, and Greg, too. But do you think the interim step might be to get rid of Minusckey? Were you leading towards that that may be more the possibility in the short term than Jay? I think so. You're getting to the point of the NFL calendar where that's happening.

I think the Panthers blew out a couple of assistants last week or two weeks ago. It's tough. And in some ways, maybe this is good for the Redskins current coaching stuff. But because the skins have this reputation as being, you know, kind of impulsive and people believe that Dan Snyder just fires coaches. And, you know, a lot of these things he did early on in his tenure as owner that he hasn't done in years since, I think that almost makes the team not make moves with assistants or not make moves that should happen. the way this thing is going defensively in the second half of the year, coupled with the way it was defensively last year, I think you can make an argument.

I'm not saying they need to do it just to do something, but it wouldn't be rash. It wouldn't be, it wouldn't be, you know, an impulsive move. I think you can make a strong case why you would do that. The problem is, unless you're going to promote Jim Tom Sula, who is really close friends of Greg Mniewski, I don't think you have a candidate on the coaching staff to take over because the rest of these guys are all pretty young.

Yeah, I don't know, you know, I think you could make the case. And I don't know that it makes a difference. Look, I mean, I think you can make the case that if you perceive the coaching availability out there in terms of potential head coaching candidates to be a light field, you could make the case for trying to clear your way now so that you're in sort of a first mover position. But I don't think it really matters ultimately. I would say this, though, at this point, you and I've had these conversations both on this podcast, on radio before, and together. I would be absolutely floored at this point if Bruce and Jay and Manuski and staff are back after.

the final game, you know, within a few days after the final game in this year. Florida? Florida, even at Bruce goes? All of them. I think they're all gone. Unless Josh Johnson's the savior, and he comes in here and he leads a three-game winning streak, and they go to the postseason, which I think we all can agree more likely than not won't happen. What if they win two out of three? No.

What if, I don't know. I think. I want you to answer, but I want you to answer. Before you do, look, just from a business standpoint, the fan base has eroded at a clip this year that's been accelerated. It's accelerated this year. It's a business non-starter to bring them back. I agree with that. I agree with that. But I don't think just changing the coaching staff changes things. for fans. I don't know if you agree with that. I do. I tend to agree with you on that. I do. But the latter, the option of bringing this group back, the venom out there among the fan base for Bruce is,

it's approaching Vinny level. I hear it. I see it on Twitter every day. you know what's interesting is I think a month ago when they were six and three and it looked like they were going to get to the playoffs I think things set up very well for Bruce to maybe kind of ride off into the sunset they make the playoffs his decision to go with Alex looks good at least on a peripheral level if they can make a stadium announcement then it's like wow you know this organization is really in good shape And then maybe he, you know, he owns a $8 million beach house on the West Coast. It wouldn't be crazy to go live there.

I think that's set up very well. Now, obviously, things are going to look entirely different. And Dan has had trouble. Sometimes Dan takes a while to see that somebody he's very close with and believes in has to go. I mean, you know, this. And really what's crazy is this team, we'll see if they end up six and ten. That'll go a long way because they haven't really bottomed out under Gruden, when Bruce has been the only one in charge.

Well, 2014, they bottomed out. But that was his first year. That was kind of a rebuild. Look, and he was forced to play a quarterback. He wanted nothing to do with for some of those games. So I don't put 14 on him. But with respect to the record, it bottomed out. It seemed hopeless at the end of 2014.

Absolutely. And I agree, but there's been much more sustained mediocrity in this administration. And in a way, over the last 25 years, sustained mediocrity is a step because everything else has been volatile and bad with a few couple random good years mixed in there. Here's what I'll say about Jay Gruden is if they're going to, Going to keep Bruce Allen around, I think Jay Gruden is the best person at maneuvering within that world. And that's why I think whatever you're looking at change-wise, the entire organization has to be considered. Because when you had Mike Shanahan in here, he and Bruce Allen were not able to coexist. We saw that end really, really poorly.

and Jay has been able to navigate it better than a two-time Super Bowl winning coach. Look, maneuvering in the world of sustained mediocrity is absolutely worthless. It's worthless. I love the description, and I think I'm going to use it as the title of this very episode, because it's really good. because the truth of the matter is 2015, 2016, and 2017, and much of 2018 is really about sustained mediocrity. And it's amazing that it's actually a step up from what they used to be. Sustained mediocrity is a compliment to this group of people.

But it's worthless moving forward because you've got a business where you don't have people coming to the games and you don't have people watching the games anymore. And this is what he has to change. But to your point, because I don't disagree with it, no one's going to have the confidence that he's going to be able to change it to something better anyway. But I just think if you bring back faces and voices that have essentially initially made people sort of throw up in their mouth and now have made people completely ignore what's going on, it's a loser. It's just not It can't

It's not The sustained mediocrity is going to turn to sustained awfulness It will, I think And sustained disinterest Which is even more dangerous For the bottom line We were talking about this

In Or increased disinterest Rather But we were I was talking about this In the press box today At halftime With a couple of

Other beat guys And Really when you look at 2019 What are the marketing folks going to sell. Because typically you either sell a good team, which I don't think either of us believe they have, you sell a new coach or a new quarterback. Maybe they're going to draft a guy.

I think you agree. I think they have to draft a quarterback. But what new coach is sellable? What quarterback out there is sellable to a fan base next season? I think the only real sellable, marketable alternative is. a godfather offer to Nick Saban that he just cannot turn down. But I was talking with a friend of mine involved in the Giants organization. And, you know, Saban's wife said no to going to New York to work for the Maras. I don't know what Terry. It ain't happening. I mean, that's the problem

they've gotten themselves into with sustained bad and sustained mediocrity with all of the clown show that surrounded it for so long is somebody like Sabin's not coming here. And look, I would take every available cent if John Harbaugh got fired in Baltimore if they don't make the playoffs, and I think they're going to make the playoffs. And I would go to Baltimore, and I would say to Eric DeCosta and to John Harbaugh, name your number. And in the contract, I will put in there that I'm only involved in certain decisions at a certain dollar value, compensation value. You'll have total autonomy. That would sell me because I'm looking for

anything at this point. But it's not going to be Saban, and it's not going to be Harbaugh, because Harbaugh's, if he were to get fired, he'd have much better options on the table than coming here. This is, this situation, as somebody described it to me, and I've used this a couple of times this year, somebody who's very close to the league said, around the league, they call the Redskins the reverse car wash. in clean leave dirty. And it's just not attractive no matter how much money he throws at it. So you're looking at Kyle Smith elevated, Greg Williams hired, or, you know, a hot candidate coming up, you know, a DiPhilippo.

I don't know who it is. But you end up with that. And I'm going through this to get to one of your points, which I do agree with, that a new group isn't going to change the way people feel about it in the short term. You're right about that. But they've got to get higher quality and more competent people in the organization somehow. Well, we'd have to look back, but didn't Shanahan have a total autonomy clause and his contract? I don't know if there was a total autonomy clause. That's a good question. I've talked to him about that and he said it wasn't necessarily contractual, but there was an understanding. But remember, one of the first things Bruce did

to him was trade for McNabb. And he had given some parameters for the deal. And they offered and got him and it cost them more than Mike had sort of given them to spend. But whatever. I mean, I just, I've always, like at the end of 2009, I remember thinking to myself, and it's the same place I'm at now, I remember thinking there is no way, no matter how. close he is to Vinny. There is no way they can bring Vinny back now. There's no way. And it's worse now in terms of the apathy. Because this season started with apathy. Right. When they were,

it was a first place game, Redskins versus Texans, two six and three teams on a sunny fall day in FedEx. Like it was, that place should have been, like Kevin, you and I grew up, you know, caring about this team, rooting for this team, always thinking it was a huge deal, and that place wasn't full? No. That's a problem. They don't have one sellout this year. Not one sellout this year.

Not one. That's amazing. Now, I think it's probably happened before, but they never had to admit it before. I'm sure they're thrilled that Brian Lafamina decided to tell everybody that there were tickets for sale this year. That's pretty funny, actually, in hindsight. You know what? It will be interesting to see is I do think Lafamina and the new guys they brought in to run business operations are taking the long view of fixing this thing. And you've got to maintain that long view.

And I think that's, you know, what the organization should do. We'll find out what happens. Tommy guessed that Lafamina wouldn't last more than a year back in September. And I would probably side with Tommy on that, that eventually, because he is, he's bright, he's got something to him, he's competent, and those are the kinds of people that usually don't work out here. I did want to ask you, well, you actually said it. they're going to have to draft a quarterback. What do we know about Alex Smith's situation with all of the reporting out there? Is his health okay? Is he going to beat this infection and get

healthy? And then what do we know about his future with respect to playing? You know, I don't know enough about either of those. I've been trying to be respectful within the realms of the job, I guess. Certainly the language surrounding them asking for respect to privacy is kind of scary. When you hear that kind of stuff is usually in grave situations, I don't believe this to be a grave situation, but I do think it's crossed kind of that bridge of going from football injury to health issue. And I think for 2019, that seems like it's not happening.

I think that it is, I think 2020 was the year they had to drop the quarterback. I think that has certainly moved up to this year. And then you should have Colt back healthy. And then you have a young guy in Colt. And, you know, if you can move Alex to the Pup list at the beginning of the year, maybe opens up a spot for you. It's going to be interesting. You think they've got anything left for Jacksonville, Tennessee, and Philadelphia?

I mean, you were in that locker room at the end of this game. Did it feel like the season ended today? Or perhaps it ended Monday night. I don't know. You've got a better sense of that than I. There's differences. The playoff season is obviously over, right? I am not going to take the crazy pills of winning three in a row with Josh Johnson.

But as far as getting another win, talking to players, there was a legitimate spark when Johnson came in the game. Now, if they can recreate that against a good Jags defense or a occasionally good Jags defense, I'm not sure. But even talking to Gruden about Johnson, he was kind of excited about him. and the NFL is a very, very strange league. And I don't believe, I said it when they had four games less, so I'm going to stick with it. I think they win one of these four just because weird things happen in the NFL every week. And I'm not sure when it is, but I think Jacksonville is a very good opportunity

because they can't score. Now, maybe they can score against this Redmond's defense. but I don't know. If Johnson can move the ball like he did against the Giants, I think it's a much different situation. And I think if they win a game with Josh Johnson and the year ends at 7 and 9, I think the situation looks different for Jay.

I really do. Boy, I'd be surprised if that's the case. I just wanted to mention to you because I haven't mentioned it yet on this podcast episode. But late in the game, I put out a poll that was total tongue-in-cheek, of course, as you know. Oh, I saw it. We were all talking about it in the press box.

Are you were, really? Yes, it came up. Did anybody? So how many of you, I mean, you know me, and a lot of those people know me, too. Most people I would hope know, I hope knew that it was totally tongue-placed firmly in cheek. I knew, so what were the options? It was, well, Josh Johnson. Yeah, I just said, I, let me just say that I, I, I,

late in the game, I put out a poll after Josh Johnson had just thrown a touchdown pass, I think, and I said, hey, will Josh Johnson lead the Redskins to the playoffs? Yes, no, or not sure yet? I think I'm approaching 3,000 votes at this point in the poll, and it's five hours into the poll. So far, 77% said no, 17%, yes, 6% not sure. You wouldn't believe how many people, you know, followed up with, come on, you're really asking, That's really your poll question. Are you serious?

So I knew it was tongue in cheek when I saw it. And the only appropriate response was to click on yes. Good for you. Good for you. Because I was hoping there would be more yeses. I really was. Oster is sitting right behind me and I think he alerted me to it. But I think I think Kime and I, like there were a few of us that knew you that were just kind of laughing at it.

Yeah. Okay, good. It's funny, though. I mean, we all have this experience where you put something out, and Twitter doesn't do the sarcasm justice. And so you get, I mean, how many people, you know, based on things you've said or written or whatever, take it so literally. It's impossible.

But anyway. You had a tweet to maybe when Colt got hurt or when Alex, I don't remember which game it was. But I know that when Kirk Cousins has a bad game, I know you get killed on Twitter. And so you put out a tweet when one of those guys got hurt, like, you know who never got hurt. And I'm just like, oh, Kevin, don't do it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The replies you're going to get. Oh, that was my, that may have been my favorite tweet in the last couple weeks.

And the only thing is, is I felt badly about it afterwards because I think I tweeted it out, did I tweet it out on Monday night or was it the Houston game? I can't even remember now. I don't remember. I love, I actually, you know, and I'll tell you this, because you're on television now, you do a great job on television, but you also have a podcast. I miss the radio back and forth, the live back and forth. That's the biggest, the number one thing I miss about radio is live and the back and forth with callers. Now, you know, we'd go weeks without taking calls at different portions of the year. But on days like today, this is when, or after a Kirk comment like that,

that was always fun because it really, most people, most people understand it. Although I will say this in all seriousness, they did completely F up the Cousins thing. There is no way that anybody will ever change my mind that they completely effed it up. And if they had handled it appropriately, they'd be in better shape right now than they are. But that's beside the point. Right, I agree. But I mean, you're talking, for me, you're talking about 2016. Yeah, 2016. Yeah, 2016, exactly. 2016 or to do it right before 2017. But whatever. Yeah, 2018, it got too pricey, but that was their own doing. All right, thanks. Always good to catch up. I maybe, you know, maybe we'll end up talking at some point this week before the next game. I'm not going to be shocked by anything that happens this week. If it happens, it's going to happen tomorrow.

more likely than not, though, if I were an odds maker on this, I would say Bruce and Jay both gone, but not until after the Philadelphia game. Remember that Shanahan wasn't fired until after Week 17. That's right. And that was when- Same was Zorn. Same was Zorn. Right.

And the organization and the coaches were at nuclear war with one another. And they still, I do, I have heard from people I believe Snyder hates the reputation. and he hates that graphic that pops up with number of coaches fired, and he hates that the interim coaches count as somebody that gets fired as well. Oh, my God. I think that. I haven't heard that one. That's rich.

If there was somebody that was out there, and I'm not the biggest Mike McCarthy guy, but if there was a big name out there that he could go pursue right away, I think it would be different, but I don't think that candidate's out there right now. Yeah, I don't know. All right, thanks. I took too much of your time. Appreciate it. We'll talk this week. Okay, see you. JP Finley, everybody. Let me tell you about Ferris, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Fairfax. Ferris makes it easy for you. I've been friends with Ralph Perkins and Kevin Ferris for over a decade now. Ralph's in the store virtually every day. They're smart. They know what their customers want. They make it easy for you if you're thinking about something new. I love Ferris and I love the guys Ralph and Kevin and everybody in their service department and all their salespeople. They've been supportive of this podcast so far. They've been supportive of the station that I was on for so long. And I'd ask that you give them a chance. chance if you're thinking about something new. Now's the right time, too. They've got plenty of inventory

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before, at Farishcars.com, live inventory, live pricing. It was good to catch up with JP. I know we started rambling there after a while. Look, I guess my position is this right now. I don't, I, I, I hate being definitive about something without also having a solution. Now, I proposed a couple of things here, but I don't know, you know, I'm not in the room interviewing these people. You know, a lot of the candidates that are out there are candidates that the organization has to sit down with. And you've got to have faith that the organization can get it done, which is why I said they've got to bring in a consultant. Dan's got to bring in a consultant to help him make the right decision on the next group of people. I just don't see, and it's where I was really after the 2009 season. Zorn was a

subpar coach, not even an average coach. He was subpar. Vinnie Serrata was an absolute disaster as a front office person and key evaluator, a key. Key personnel guy in your organization. And the proof is in the pudding there. He's never been hired since. Bruce Allen's different from Vinnie Serato in that he's been a very competent league executive for a long period of time. You know, Bruce has done a lot of good things in the league, but he's never been the key

personnel guy in an organization. And the bottom line is right now for a lot of reasons that are justifiable and then probably a lot of reasons that are exaggerated. He is, other than Snyder, enemy number one of the fan base in the same way that Serato was. It was the same thing. It was like you cannot bring back Vinnie Serato and ask us to be interested in the team anymore. Now with Bruce, you know, the track record of identifying players and acquiring players and retaining players hasn't been nearly the disaster it was under Serrato. But there hadn't been a lot of. But there hadn't been a lot of lot of good either to sort of hang your hat on. I mean, it's not like the Redskins have been

phenomenal in the draft or phenomenal in free agency or phenomenal in understanding how to retain key players with good vision and anticipation. You know, the Cousins thing will forever be on his list of screw-ups in my view, not because they didn't sign him last year, but because they didn't have the vision on the most important position in a NFL organization. I just don't see how you can bring Bruce back in any capacity, because if he's in the organization, the perception is going to be he is running the organization with Snyder, that he's the, the guy in the organization with Dan. I just don't see it. I think that the options are, you know, you bring in somebody to help you pick the next GM and the next coach, or you go out and you, you, you, you,

hire a rainmaker, you know, perhaps, you know, you go out and give, you know, J.P. through this out there, you give somebody like Nick Sabin, all the money in the world to not only be the coach, but to be the key personnel guy, but he's not coming here. That's what's different now about the way it used to be. And you throw into all of this, the quarterback situation, they signed Alex Smith to a four-year contract extension. He's got to be here on. He's got to be here on your books through at least 19, even 20 for it not to be really painful to get rid of him. Anyway, let's go around the NFL where it was an incredible day. The biggest plays and the clutch moment.

It's time to go around the NFL. Well, there are so many great games, and I'll take it chronologically as the day unfolded. I'm sure a lot of you, like me, got to the point where it was unwatchable, which was pretty much from the second quarter on at FedEx Field. I watched the game until the fourth quarter, and then I went back and watched the Josh Johnson plays afterwards. But there was a better football one. I mean, you start with the incredible Ravens Chiefs game. Look, this is really an interesting situation. Do you know that the Ravens were so close, so close in this.

game to being in first place in the AFC North because Pittsburgh lost at Oakland. They had a 24 to 17 fourth quarter lead. Patrick Mahomes made some plays that were ridiculous, ridiculous fourth down throws on that final drive. On the drive that tied it at 2424, there is a fourth and nine play that he runs around and throws the ball back over the middle to Tyreek Hill that is as good of a play as you'll see all year long. And then on fourth and goal at the Baltimore 5, he finds Damien Williams for a touchdown to tie it at 24. And then you get into the Lamar Jackson fumbles on the next drive, but Butker misses the kick

and it wasn't a long one. It was like 42 yards. And the game goes to overtime. And I'm going to mention this right now, so I don't forget. this thought. This overtime change last year to the 10-minute overtime from 15-minute. It was a safety-initiated rule is dumb. It is too short for an overtime. Philadelphia could have been burned. Had Dallas not scored the touchdown, well, they lost the game anyway. It was possible that Dallas was going to get a first down in overtime on the opening drive of the game.

and be in a position to have a walk-off field goal with Philadelphia never touching the ball. It's got to go to 15 minutes. They get into overtime. Kansas City wins a toss. It's a long drive. They ended up kicking a field goal with about four and a half to go. Baltimore is not a quick strike team, and with Lamar Jackson, they've got to be able to run it and grind it out.

And they nearly, if they hadn't, I'll get to the end in a moment, but they were approaching a situation in which they weren't going to have a, enough time to win the football game. Tying it was a possibility down three, but winning it not so much because of the time involved in OT. They're going to have to go back. The NFL's got to go back to a 15-minute overtime. Still the same rules, all right? You get a possession if the first team that touches it doesn't score a touchdown. Baltimore at the very end of overtime trailing by three, they were on the move, all right? There was a huge Lamarge. Romo said it was the best throw of the day He threw to Sneed on third and seven for a first down, and then he got hurt.

And RG3 came in for the final two plays, and the final pass, which was a fourth and 22 throw to Willie Sneed, his first throw was nearly picked, should have been picked by Scandrick. The fourth and 22 throw was right on the money. I mean, RG3 put it on the money to Sneed, but he couldn't come up with it. I thought there was interference on that play. Game ends. Kansas City wins a wild one. Look, if you just look at the stats from this game and you look at things like total yards,

you won't understand the job that Baltimore's defense did against this Kansas City offense. They harassed Mahomes all day long. He threw for 377. He still did. And Spencer Ware, I think, had five yards to carry. But Baltimore was roughing up Kansas City. Baltimore's defense can travel and win in the postseason. It can. But I don't even know if it'll get to the postseason. This was a winnable game for them. So Baltimore's faced with this. They lose a game that they could have won. And it was the first real opponent, difficult opponent, that Lamar Jackson had to face. And he was effective at times. And he made some good plays, but he also, unfortunately, made some bad plays. The fumble at the end of regulation. was bad. Overall in the game, he had two fumbles lost one of them in the game. He was 13 of 24 for 147 yards. He did run 13 more times for 71 yards. I don't know what John Harbaugh is going to do. He's got to

say, Flacco was not active for the game today, but I think he was close to being active. They play the Bucks at home on Sunday must win for their playoff hopes. I think he starts Jackson and potentially plays Flacco on third down passing situations or maybe they go alternate series. I don't know. Jackson's dynamic in so many ways. He's their future. I think they've got a chance to make the postseason with the Bucks and Browns

and two of their final three to get to nine wins. I think their best chance is Flacco. I could be crazy on that, but Jackson can't throw from the pocket right now. Can't do it. Then you had the miracle in Miami yesterday. First of all, you know, this game was back and forth the whole way. Tom Brady at the end, and you'll get this on coaching blunders because it was really a player blunder. He took a sack at the end of the half thinking he had a time out left, but he didn't. And he admitted after the game, I thought I had a time out left. He took a sack, clock ran out, no points at the end of the first half.

But New England took a 33-28 lead with about, there was roughly about, I think when Gostel, I think the kick went through with about 15 seconds left in the game. I think it was. So Miami got a kickoff return because they made them return it out to the 31-yard line. So they had one play. and the final play was a pass, a lateral, and then another lateral to Kenyon Drake. And Drake's running around like he wants to pitch it to somebody else, and Grinkowski's on the field for New England as a defender,

as if they could have thrown a Hail Mary from their own 31-yard line. Was Belichick asked about that after the game? He was. I just looked at the transcript before this started, and basically his answer was, well, we thought they were, he didn't think that they could throw it to the end zone, but they could have thrown it to like the 20 yard line or so and then a lateral from there. So he wanted Gronk in the game for that, which I think is a really poor decision if that's the thought process. But that was his thought process apparently. I think we've all watched enough football to know that from your own 31 yard line,

now Mahomes in the league right now might be able to get it to the end zone from there. But Ryan Tannehill isn't. And so the play that everybody runs is the crossing pattern, and then, you know, we're going to try to lateral the thing around and break it. And the lateral play never works, but it did this time. And they're calling it the Miami miracle. And now Tom Brady is 7 and 10 lifetime in Miami. 34, 33 dolphins. The dolphins put themselves in position here.

They play at Minnesota next week. Then they've got Jacksonville and Buffalo to get to nine. wins to give themselves a chance, a chance at a wildcard spot in the AFC. You know, you look at some of the losses that Miami's had. They lost a game recently to the Colts that was winnable. Remember, they had that big lead against the Colts late and luck brought them back. They lost a game, I want to say it was against Detroit that I think was winnable. I said they had no chance to make the postseason. They do now after beating the Patriots. That was a smell test pick. As an aside, the smell test, six and two with the bears pending. They're six,

six at halftime right now against the Rams and the Vikings tomorrow night as well. So it's going to be another winning week for the smell test, regardless of what happens in these final two games. Just a scorching month for the smell test. One of the best months I've ever had. Right now, 36 and 13 in the last four and a half weeks. But the Miami ending, one of the all-time great NFL endings, it was. That was one people will never forget. The one o'clock window just continued. The Browns Panthers had a great game.

The Panthers had a chance down 2620 to score late in the game and couldn't get it done. They had a first and goal at the Cleveland nine-yard line with four minutes to go, went forward on fourth and three with about two and a half to go, and Greg Williams since taking over for Hugh Jackson has won three of four games, the one lost last week to Houston. Believe it or not, Cleveland's not out of it at 5-7-1 in the AFC. If they were to run the table at Denver next week, Cincinnati at home, at Ravens, and finish 8-7-1, there's actually a possibility for them to get in to the postseason. Greg Williams, I want him if he'd come here.

and if they can't get something much better like John Harbaugh. A couple of the other games. Aaron Rogers set the NFL mark for consecutive passes without an interception in the game. They beat the Falcons 3420. That was another smell test pick. I had the Packers laying the number in that particular game. So the Packers win the first without Mike McCarthy. And believe it or not, with everything that happened in the NFC yesterday,

all right, with the Panthers losing, with the Redskins losing, with the Eagles losing. You know, Green Bay's not out of it. Eight, seven, and one could potentially get them into the postseason as a wild card. Things are getting nuts in both conferences right now with respect to the wild card race in particular. The other one o'clock games that were crazy. Look, the Jets were the game that I gave out on Friday and I said, I don't know how you lose 41 to 10 three weeks ago, and you're only a three and a half point underdog this time on the road,

and they went out and won the game outright 27 to 23. The Saints trailed the Buccaneers 14 to 3 at one point. Like at one point during that one o'clock window, if you're following these scores, you're like, wait a minute. The Saints only scored 10 against the Cowboys, and now they've only put up three and three quarters against the Buccaneers, but they erupted. for 25 unanswered. And actually, the smell test pick that looked the best all day long didn't come through. The Buccaneers plus nine and a half in that game. And the Saints get back into the wind column.

But it wasn't easy. It was not easy against Tampa Bay. 2814, not necessarily indicative of how tight that game was. It was another turnover-ridden game for the Buccaneers. They turned it over three times in that game, which is why they lost that game. Drew Bree is only threw for 201 yards in the game. Tampa Bay's defense, which has been porous all year long, has now put together back, like three weeks in a row of really good defense.

The Buccaneers had they held on, if they had won that game yesterday to get to six and seven, they would have been the team we would have been talking about today as a team that could have made a backdoor late run into the postseason. they're playing very well, and they're going to be a disruptor here the rest of the way. They play at Baltimore and at Dallas the next two weeks, two teams that have to win against Tampa Bay. Also in the one o'clock window, the Texans' nine-game winning streak came to an end at the hands of Indianapolis, who couldn't score last week against Jacksonville, but put 24 on the board against Houston to win that game 24-21. Andrew Luck, 27 of 41, 399 in the game. They basically couldn't move it on the ground at all,

but Ty Wylton had a huge day, nine catches, 199 yards in that game, and the Colts get to 7 and 6. Then we got to the 4 o'clock window. I gave the Bengals out plus 14.5. That game went to 17, Aaron, by kickoff. San Diego was a 16.5, 17-point favorite at kickoff. Friday I gave the Bengals out plus 14.

and a half. And I'll tell you this, before the day started, I wanted to give back Cincinnati and take, I'm just saying, I'm not this guy usually to tell you about the games I liked afterwards, because I've told you many times about the games that I liked that I would have lost on, but I can't believe I didn't give out San Francisco the other day. I thought about Oakland a lot because it was an anti-public play, but there was sharp money on Pittsburgh, but San Francisco was the one I really wanted to take and give back Cincinnati, but Cincinnati got it done. They were in that game the whole way, had a chance going for two to tie it late.

But the Chargers are now 10 and 3. The 49ers really derailed Denver's hopes, you know, with a 20 to 14 win over Denver who had been rolling. And now Denver's 6 and 7 with a bunch of 7 and 6 teams for that last wild card spot. And then we get to the two games that were amazing. in the late window. First of all, Ben Rothelisberger leaves the game at one point with an injury with 14 to 10 lead. But Oakland's playing well the entire day, and they come back and they take the lead late in the game.

They take the lead 17, 14, with about 5 and a half to go. Rathlisberger back into the game. Six plays 75 yards right down the field, and it's 2117. Pittsburgh. But here comes the Raiders on an eight-play, 75-yard drive, and Derek Carrier on a fourth and goal throws complete to Derek Carr, excuse me, throws complete to Derek Carrier, car to carrier for the 24-21 win, but it's not over yet. Because we got another lateral play, the old hook-in-lateral, the pitch in the quick, the throw-in-the-quick pitch back to Juju-Smith Schuster who's running down the field and at first you're thinking he's got a chance to take it to

the house but he runs out of bounds smart play at the 23 yard line so that Boswell can come in for a game tying field goal the field was a mess he slipped the kick got blocked and the raiders pull off a stunner 2421 over Pittsburgh so do you notice how ben was not in that game for a good chunk of it and came in at the very very end Tomlin talked about that after the game what did he say he i didn't see the exact quote but paraphrasing it was basically said yes he could have come in earlier but we didn't think we needed him but i thought that there was some injury with rothlessberger apparently he had been cleared earlier in the game than he had actually come in because they went with josh dobs right um and dabs did nothing on all of those drives as they fell behind i get that that's

interesting i did not know that that's a very interesting quote and that is uh basically calling himself out as the reason for the loss. Pittsburgh right now, go figure. They've lost three in a row, and let's be fair here. It could be four in a row. Remember they destroyed Carolina on that Thursday night, and that was like five wins in a row,

and you're like, oh, here come the Steelers. And then they're down 16-0, but they rally to beat Jacksonville somehow on the final play of the game. They lose to Denver, throwing a pick into the end zone late when they're trying to force overtime. They blow a big lead against the Chargers,

last Sunday night, and they blow one in Oakland against the Raiders where they never win, for whatever reason, in Oakland, 24-21. Now they've got the Patriots and the Saints. The next two weeks, Pittsburgh is reeling that AFC North is up for grabs. And when I say up for grabs, the Ravens have a chance to win the division. Pittsburgh obviously has a chance to win the division. Cleveland has a chance to win that division. And then we get to the Philadelphia Dallas game. I don't know if it was the game of the day. It certainly was one of the several dramatic games of the day. This game, if you had the, if you had the under in this game, and it's 9-0 at halftime. And it's 9-0 at halftime.

9-0 late into the third quarter. There's basically no chance, really, that you have of losing that game if you've got under 46, which is where it went off. And then all of a sudden, there are 37 points scored. Actually, 43 points in total scored. 37 over the last 18 minutes of regulation, and then the six in overtime. And the Cowboys, the Cowboys do it. It was a crazy game. Look, Dallas right now defensively is as good as anybody in the league. They are. The Eagles could not run the football against the Cowboys.

You can't run the football against Dallas right now. You can't run it against them. Their pass rush is incredible. You'll look at the final numbers and you'll say, well, Wents only got sacked twice. Wentz was under siege for most of the day in that game. The problem Dallas has, and I mentioned this last week, when they beat New Orleans is Prescott is a turnover machine. In the game, two picks and a fumble.

Three more turnovers for him. In the game, Dallas had four turnovers in the game and won it in overtime, 29-23. Prescott set the Cowboys record for the most completions ever from a Dallas quarterback. Not Aikman, not Romo, not stawback. Prescott, 42 completions. out of 54 attempts for 455 yards.

I don't know how this game changed from 9 to nothing to a 29-23 shootout in overtime, but the play that really turned it around was the interception. It was a terrible throw by Prescott, midway through the third quarter, the Eagles scored a touchdown. Then Prescott fumbled, and the Eagles kicked a field goal, 9-9, because they missed the PAT. Then the Cowboys went down the field and scored. Then the Eagles answered 16-16. Then we got to the craziness of the end.

The Cowboys score on a 75-yard or to Amari Cooper, who was brilliant all day. What a pickup he was. And then two of the worst calls you will ever see that nearly decided the game. A touchdown pass to Goddard, the other tight end, and they called it offensive pass interference call on Goddard, that was just horrible. horrible. And then on the next play, a roughing the passer penalty on the next play when the guy was, yes, at Carson Wentz's feet. He was at the feet of Wentz, but he didn't hit him. He reached out and grabbed his feet to tackle him, and they called it roughing the passer. Unbelievable. It was on Gregory, I think, and it was just one of the worst calls I've ever seen in my life. Philadelphia, though, bounced back from the touchdown that got called. back from the OPI, and then they got a couple of penalties, including that ridiculous roughing the passer. They end up scoring, and then Dallas is in perfect position to get in

field goal range because Brett Moore had already kicked a 62-yarder at the end of the first half in that game, and Prescott has a terrible snap that he has to fall on to call their last time out, and then he gets sacked at the Philadelphia 47 to end regulation. But they won the toss, they drove it down the field, and Prescott to Cooper off a deflected pass. A play that was played well, but it got deflected, popped up into the air, and Amari Cooper picked it off, or caught it, and scored. And in that game, he had 10 catches for 217 yards and three touchdowns. Amari Cooper, his, listen to the games he's had here recently.

10 catches, 217 yards, three touchdowns yesterday. Eight catches for 76 yards against New Orleans. Eight catches for buck 80 against the Redskins and two touchdowns on Thanksgiving. Just an incredible mid-season pickup by the Cowboys, and I will be, I'll admit this again. I thought the first for him was too much. I did. I thought he had great talent. I loved him coming out, but I thought he had some job.

Josh Doxon, does he really love football? Is he really highly competitive? What a change in career for him and for the team that he went to. The Cowboys are eight and five, and they have now won five games in a row. Here's an amazing stat. Amari Cooper is the Cowboys' leading receiver for 2018 by 140 yards and three touchdowns. Unbelievable. And how many games again?

Six. Five games, right? It's the five that he's been here for that they've won. The Cowboys now really have the division, let's face it, they've basically have the, they've got the division one. They've swept Philadelphia. The Redskins can't do anything the rest of the way. The Cowboys are going to have a home playoff game, and because of their defense, more than anything else, they're going to have a chance in this postseason.

I don't think they can go to New Orleans and win. I don't think they can. They've already beaten the Saints. They could go to the Rams and win. They could go to Chicago and win. If they have to go to Chicago. Anyway, what a day of football yesterday was. And the game going on right now as we're recording the podcast,

it's eight to six bears in this game. How did they get the safety? I missed it. They just got to golf quickly. The Chicago defense is really, really good, which tells you that the Giants right now are such a dangerous team. for the Giants, they will be kicking themselves over that loss to the Eagles two weeks ago because they'd be in the thick of the wild card race right now,

if not for blowing a 19 to 3 lead at Philadelphia. Speaking of the Bears winning right now, how funny would it be if the two teams that end up in the NFC championship game are the two teams that John Gruden traded a major player to? Chicago and Dallas. Not ridiculous looking right now. I still see the, Rams and the same. Sure, they're the favorite, but it's not ridiculous. It's not crazy anymore.

All of a sudden, like these NFL seasons do, they change so rapidly. The difference between the top two and the rest of the potential playoff field in the NFC, it's shrunk here in the last couple of weeks, and it's shrunk because all the sudden New Orleans looks mortal and the cowboys are good. I hate saying that. They're so damn. I wanted Philadelphia to win that game. part of me wanted them to win that game because I keep thinking, you know, as I've been so critical of this franchise and this team here in recent weeks, but at the same time, and I swear to God, this is true, I swear it on my children. Even when the game ended, I'm like, hmm, maybe Josh Johnson can go beat Jacksonville.

And if Philadelphia wins, and they're 7 and 7, and the Cowboys have, you know, they've got the Colts next week, and the Eagles have the Rams, and then you've got three teams at 7 and 7 next week. But Dallas is going to win the division now. They're going to win the division. They're going to host a playoff game. That's a repulsive thought, actually, them in general. But their defense is actually fun to watch.

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It's a great spot right now. You can get more work done today by moving to launch workplaces. Call today for an exclusive free two-day trial, 240-86714, or visit launchworkplaces.com today. that's 240, 800, 6714, or launchworkplaces.com. Let's finish up the show with a little weekend DVR. Did you have a busy weekend? Don't worry. We've got you covered. It's time for weekend DVR. All right.

I can just tell you right now there's going to be some coaching blunders from the Army Navy game. Great on Navy to get that late field goal for the push. I'm going to go through this list real quickly. This has been a long show so far. Really long, right? Am I right about that? Oh, yeah, pretty long. A couple of things.

Number one, highly recommended. I will try to find it on YouTube and get Aaron to tweet out the link, or I'll tweet out the link. But HBO had their final night of boxing. It was a female bout. I didn't watch that. I was actually watching some boxing on ESPN Saturday night. at the end of the broadcast, Jim Lampley, Max Kellerman, Roy Jones, Jr. went through their thoughts about being part of HBO's 45-year run of boxing. And then they had a, you know, sort of a montage of the greatest fights, the greatest fighters, the greatest memories in the history of HBO boxing.

It was, if you're a boxing fan, and I'm a longtime boxing fan, not as much. in recent years as I was. I mean, in the 80s, man, to me, that that heyday of the middle divisions with Hearns and Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard and Pepino Quavis and Roberto Duran and Marvin Hagler, the whole thing was just, you know, Aaron Pryor and Alexa, in Argueo, all of them. I loved that era of boxing. And I loved it through the 90s, too. I think in the last 10 years, I haven't been nearly as into boxing. And why would I be? There has some. been a real compelling fighter. I was a big Pachial fan there for a little while. I've been to some big fights before in Vegas over the years, probably a half dozen, actually more than that probably

over the years. I've said this before, but I don't know that there's a more electrifying feeling attending a sporting event than what you feel being at a championship fight in Las Vegas. There's just nothing like it. But Lampley, to me, he His play-by-play and his lead on HBO's boxing coverage has been the best of any lead person on any sporting event. And he has been, over the years, one of my favorite interviews. And I've probably done something with Lampley a half dozen times over the years. My favorite. I mean, certainly up there among my favorite.

Just find it. We'll try to find it and tweet it out. but if you're a boxing fan, you've got to watch the final. It's about a five-minute piece on HBO's boxing coverage over 45 years. It ended on Saturday night. What else from over the weekend? How about John Wall on Saturday night against Cleveland? Now, John Wall says he's hurt.

He says he's got a foot issue. The Wizards lost to the Cavaliers. tweeted me midway through that game or early in that game. They're down 20 again in the first half, and it seems to be almost every game that that happens. John Wall's final numbers in the game, one point, six assists in 26 minutes. O for five from the floor, O for three from the three point line, one for two from the free throw line in the game. Wall said it's bone spurs, I guess, in his left heel that he's been dealing with. There was a another rumor about Wall over the weekend with respect to a trade.

The Wizards did acquire, remember Wisconsin's Sam Decker, who was a first round pick. They got rid of Jason Smith in a three-way deal. More rumors about Walled L.A. over the weekend. The Knicks rumors from the other day. This would have been, this rumor is Walled L.A. for L.A. for Lanzo Ball. And then potentially either Ingram or Josh Hart. I'd want either one of them. God, I'd like to have both of those guys and not have ball personally, and then maybe add in a pick there. Meantime, the Lakers are trying to trade for Trevor Areza because they realize that he is a winner and he helps teams win, something that Ernie Grunfeld never realized.

Also from the weekend, Georgetown, heartbreaking loss at Syracuse. Great game. Maryland had an ugly win over Loyola of Chicago. It was really painful to watch. At one point, They had seven points. They were stuck on seven with like eight minutes to go in the first half. But they won that game going away 55 to 41. It was foul trouble for Bruno early, for Stick Smith early. They also lost more sell to a twisted ankle. I've been looking Aaron at Maryland's basketball schedule upcoming. They have a couple of games. Seaton Hall beat Kentucky on Saturday. Radford's already beaten Texas and Notre Dame. They got some very difficult games. Nebraska now looks like a really good team. They blew out Creighton.

So Nebraska, who's already ranked in the Big Ten, they come to College Park, I think, here. Is that a New Year's day game or the day after New Year's? I mean, their schedule upcoming is not easy. But it's a good win over Loyola of Chicago. Pretty good win. What else did I have from over the weekend? Jim Harbaugh says he's staying at Michigan. Kyler Murray won the Heisman trophy and then had to put out a statement because of some homophobic tweets from when he was 14 years old. 14, he

used the word queer in a tweet and had to apologize for that after winning the Heisman trophy on Saturday night. Jason Garrett, did you read this over the weekend? Has been asking Jason Witten to come out of retirement to join the Cowboys and Witten has said no, I wish Witten would say yes. Liz Clark had a story from over the weekend about the RFK site becoming a significant possibility because of the current administration and the fact that that land, the RFK lands owned by the

Department of Interior and there's a better chance for right now based on this administration. I've thought this all along and I've had this conversation with various people in the Redskins organization that when Trump got elected, that there was the possibility, D.C. became a much better possibility, again, because of it being federal land. God, that would be a big mistake if they put the stadium anywhere but there. Good story by Liz Clark. I'd urge you to read that. One more big thing we have to mention that just happened here for Week in DVR.

I know you've been paying attention. Did they win? They did. Maryland won their fourth ever NCAA-M. men's soccer championship. They weren't supposed to win the championship this year. No, they were the 11th overall seed. Sasha. Sasha Sorovsky. He's a nice

guy, the head coach there. Amazing, amazing coach. Yeah. Congratulations to Maryland. You know, there was a, while you were on vacation last week, Jim Delaney, the conference commissioner, the Big Ten Conference Commissioner, made an offhanded remark about Marilyn

Rutgers joining the Big Ten and whether or not it's been a good thing. And he said, well, for one of the teams, it's been okay. they've won 30 conference championships. Right. And that would be Maryland. You don't think about all these other sports. Maryland's dominant in so many sports,

you know, whether it be the lacrosse, women's and men's field hockey, women's field hockey, the men's soccer team. They just have so many great programs out there. And, you know, I think this may have happened after the show on Friday. I can't remember now. I'm losing Train of Thought. train of thoughts out of control here. Was the Loxley press conference on Friday or Thursday?

It was on Friday. Yeah. So I watched that press conference, and I was very impressed. And I think Maryland made the right decision. I really do. I think they made the right decision with Loxley. I can tell you this, and I think I said this on Friday. It would have been a disastrous non-hire because of the football community

and how deeply people feel about. him in a positive way. But I thought it was a really impressive press conference from over the weekend. I think I got everything. I think that's it. All right. Thanks to Aaron, who's back, did a great job. Thanks to J.P. Finley, who joined us. Bears Rams, it's 15 to 6 Chicago in the third quarter. So I'm going to assume, but no, I can't do that. I was going to say I'm going to assume a cover there for a seven and two week, but we got way too much time left in that game. But we wanted to get it out early tonight. I like doing it while I'm still awake, actually, rather than doing it half asleep. Enjoy the show. If there are any significant events tomorrow in the, in Ashburn, as it relates to

Bruce Allen or Jay Gruden, will come in here and do another podcast during the day. But have a great day. Tommy, you'll be with me on Tuesday. Until then, thanks.