The Kevin Sheehan Show - Turnovers & Tapping Out

Episode Date: September 21, 2020

Cooley and Kevin today recapping Washington's 30-15 loss in Arizona. They discussed what they liked and didn't like from the loss to the Cardinals and got into detail on the performance by Haskins. They also got after Ron Rivera's decision to tap out at the end of the game. They also discussed the biggest games of the NFL day and ended with an appreciation for what DeChambeau did at Winged Foot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A Cooley and Kevin Monday recap of the Washington, Arizona game and all of the NFL coming up right after I tell you about Visa. Visa knows that local businesses are the heartbeat of our communities, whether there are corner stores or coffee spots or our favorite shops. Local businesses have always been there for us. They remember our orders. They call us by name, always giving back, making a difference in going that extra mile to support us and our community. And right now, more than ever, local businesses need. our support. So now it's time for us to return the favor. The next time you go shopping, make the choice to shop at a local business and look for the contactless symbol and tap to pay with a contactless

visa to help support your community because where and how you shop matters. Visa, everywhere you want to be, official partner of the NFL. You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. And first down, and here is Murray. Murray went to his way. First down, touchdown. Cardo. Boy, he's special.

A 30 to 15 loss in Arizona, and that guy, Kyler Murray, was the best player on the field yesterday. Cooley called it on Friday. He said Arizona is a seven-point favorite, and they're a seven-point favorite for a reason. They were going to be difficult to deal with both sides of the ball. Coolie is with me. It's a Cooley and Kevin Monday recap show. We're going to certainly get to our game take. Cooley's going to do his mms and us.

We'll do it that way again. I've got a full game take. We'll go around the NFL. Cooley crazy day in the NFL. I mean, that Dallas game, the onside kick, the game last night between the Patriots and the Seahawks, it was a wild week too. I mean, it seemed like football yesterday.

It was a wild week. I watched the Dallas game live for the last four minutes of that game as they came back from 15 points in four minutes. And then I watched the onsides kick just in awe. The Atlanta rolled at 10 yards. I watched a ton of football yesterday. I watched the Seattle Seahawks and the Patriots and just how good Seattle is and how good Russell Wilson is. I watched all the Washington football team game, which was a little bit interesting. But yeah, there were some good ball games.

Kansas City. Man, that was a heck of a game of Kansas City. Yeah, good football. I wish we had some better football to watch because I thought our game was one of the worst games of the day. I'm wondering, did you, I guess you were watching Dallas, Atlanta. By the way, if Cooley's audio sounds a little bit different, we're trying him via Zoom today to create a better quality sound situation.

And we're very flexible here on a Cooley and Kevin Monday. If we don't like it or if you don't like the sound of it, actually, I thought the phone thing really improved towards the end of last week. But everybody suggesting to us that this is the way to go right now in this environment. But were you on Dallas, Atlanta because they weren't switching to the 4 o'clock game or you couldn't get the Skins Cardinals game? Because that went well into the first quarter of the Washington, Arizona game. So we took a trip over the weekend to Thermopolis, Wyoming, where there's a mineral hot springs. And the kids were playing with some other kids. And we'd stayed the night, Saturday night.

And so I wanted to drive home to make the game, but everyone was excited to stay there. And I figured we could just watch it in a car ride on the way home. I have Hulu. It would be fine. For whatever reason, the Hulu I have on my phone doesn't have the Washington game. It didn't have it until I got home. so I didn't start, I didn't get into our game real time until late into the second quarter. So I watched the Dallas game on the right home.

I see. Which is why I watched the Dallas game. So did you go back and watch the first half of the Washington game on Game Pass? Yeah, I went back and watched it on Hulu last night. And I watched a bunch of the first half again on Game Pass today. And it's out on film for me today as well, which I haven't quite gotten to. It's funny. I did the first half.

this last Monday, I went and I watched the film, and I feel like it takes away your fan take from the game. It makes it a more analytical take on Monday, which I don't necessarily want. I want to have that kind of fresh. I just watched it off TV take before I get too deep into who did what and why. Right. So I haven't actually, I was up early this morning, but I just watched it again on the game replay, the condensed version, which is awesome. Oh, yeah. The NFL does that on game pass is awesome. The condensed version is great. Yeah, I agree.

The NFL game pass, I mean, you talked to me into this thing, I don't know, four or five years ago whenever it was. And it was, it's been great. I mean, I like the coach's film, but really, you know, it's a great way to go and watch the other games that you didn't see in condensed version, which is sort of what I did with the Arizona-San Francisco game late last week. But, yeah, I mean, look, when we did this show together, when you did. It was always the fan reaction on Monday and then the analytical film breakdown on Tuesday and Wednesday. And that's what we're going to do here on the podcast as well. By the way, Thermopolis, Wyoming, Hot Springs country.

Like, did you spend time, you know, waiting in those hot springs? Well, we actually stayed at the Sacagawea well, which you can look up, pumps out 1.3 million gallons of water every single day. at 130 degrees, but they just divide it up into different pools. They actually have a hot springs where they're water slides and stuff there. It's a tiny town, though. And we just stayed at the one, there's an RV park. Our friends all had RVs. We don't.

We'll get one because if you live here, you better have one. But we stayed at the days in for the night. It was funny, though. I packed all the clothes for all the kids and everything, and I forgot the bag. the whole car full of stuff. I forgot the bag of clothes. You forgot their clothes? Do this. Look up clothing and apparel in Thermopolis, Wyoming.

Oh my God. You can't find it. I bought pajamas at the family dollar, which was the only store that you could actually buy clothing in Thermopolis, Wyoming. And then I went to the swimming place with the slides and stuff, which is popular. By the way, you can do gear round. It's a mineral hot spring. It's warm. And they gave me kids'

swimming suits out of the lost and found. Oh, geez, you're a mess. You know, I actually, so when we were in Iceland a couple of summers ago, remember I called in, that was them not getting Kirk

signed by the franchise tag, and then Bruce Allen calling that hasty press conference to rip them publicly. And I called into the show from Iceland. But anyway, I'm digressing here because they've got this very famous hot springs, spa, which is a public thing called the Blue Lagoon, I think was the name of it.

I think, or maybe just the lagoon. I forget. We went. And I have to tell you that, you know, when those places have a lot of people in them, it's gross. I just, there were, I mean, I remember walking around and it's kind of cool to be in it for a little bit, but I'd like to be in there by myself, not with a lot of other people, with long hair and hair. hairs floating around. I just don't, I don't think they're very clean. I think they're sort of gross. And I would imagine in pandemic times, I mean, is 130 degrees enough to kill a virus or does it spread?

I think you could put chlorine in the water if you want to put chlorine in the water. Of course you could. And where we were, we were at this, we're at the second Jewel. Thermopolis. Our kids were, in our family was the only one in the pool while we were there. Oh, that's perfect. I mean, if I had one of those things to myself, that would be awesome. Like if I had a hot springs in my backyard living in Montana or Wyoming, you know, the first time I ever went to Wyoming, we're going to get to the game take here in a moment, I promise. The first time I ever went to Wyoming, I've told you this story. I was 21 years old. It was after my junior year at Maryland, or really turned out to be my sophomore year, credits-wise, should have been my junior year. My buddy Mike and I. I got into a car. We did this drive-away service where a family was moving from D.C. to Oakland, California. They gave us their car to drive. It was a Honda Accord.

They paid for the gas. We had to pay for everything else, and they said, take your time. Well, we took our time going out. It took us, you know, we took a week and a half, two weeks going out. And one of our stops was an old faithful, you know, in Yellowstone. And I remember being mesmerized by old faithful. and just, and I know it's a total tourist trap, but all of the geysers and springs,

I think that thing is so fascinating to see that thing just erupt from the ground every, you know, whatever it was, every 20 minutes. I don't even know what the times. About every hour. Is it every hour? But it's faithful. Oh, it is faithful.

It is faithful. And I remember how cool it is. It's just, it's pretty wild the planet, you know, And it's pretty wild the differences in our country's geography and how many different climates and how many different, you know, environments there are. And, you know, it's funny, I'm getting sidetracked again here. In recent days, my boys and I were talking about all the fires out west. And do you know that the smoke from the fires out west has actually traveled east?

the sun was super hazy last week. There was actually some people could smell the smoke in the air because it got caught up in the jet stream. And, you know, living on the East Coast, living in D.C., not, you know, the Southeast Coast, but in the Mid-Atlantic or Northeast, it's probably coolly the safest place to live in terms of natural disaster possibility. No fires, no earthquakes. we did have that earthquake in 2011, but it's really a long shot. No real tornadoes. You know, it's not Midwest country.

Hurricanes by the time they get here are basically tropical storms. You know, really the worst weather event we can have is a severe blizzard, which we've had before, you know, several times over the last 10 to 15 years. But when you get out west and you're in California with fires and earthquakes and, you know, there's so many other possibilities in terms of, natural disaster. Yeah, it's very true. Well, Wyoming, I feel like, is one of the safer

places. It's just that when Yellowstone erupts, Wyoming's going to be magma. Right. So you're waiting for the one biggest national disaster. Well, you can have, I mean, you can have the same thing we have and have a better chance of having severe winter weather. But, you know, Wyoming. Sure, but you deal with severe winter weather here without

problem. Right. And by the way, you mentioned the smoke. You think I don't realize that it went east. It was a haze for two weeks here. Right. Oh, I bet it was. Of course. But you can get tornadoes in Wyoming, can't you? No, usually the mountains break them up. Oh, that's a good point. Good point. All right. Not too bad there. Yeah, let's get to the game take right after I tell you about Fubo TV, which Cooley actually, I think this is for you. You can watch live sports without cable, 100 plus channels, you can push for the family plan where three people can watch it once. There's a standard base plan with two screens at once. You get 15% off your first month, 30 hours of DVR capability, and your local broadcast as well. Tough times for a lot of folks,

but if you want to save money, $50 is more than affordable than other cable providers. With the NFL season now upon us, Fubo TV will not disappoint. Stay updated on your favorite teams as well as local broadcast news. So go to FubotTV.com slash athletic today and get 15% off your first month. You won't regret it. That's FubotTV.com slash athletic. Start your first month today. All right, let's get to our game take.

Cool, you'll start with his mms. The Ms is the good one. And the ooze. Is that right? Did I get that wrong? Why don't you explain? Well, someone said that on Twitter this week, that, and I remembered that we did that. Yeah.

I don't know what the day I came up with. Mm. Yeah. There were a lot more, there were a lot more is in this game. All right. Yeah. You kick it off, then I'll get to my game take. Go ahead.

I think the biggest eh from this game in general, Kevin, was that they had chances to answer and they had. chances to answer early in the game. And they didn't take advantage of those opportunities. That was the difference to me between the Philadelphia game the week before and this game in Arizona. You look at a Landon-Collins interception down 7-0. You have an opportunity to go down and at least put three points on the board. That's killer to fumble down there. I thought in looking at it on the television, they run a run action pass with two crossing routes, Sims and McLaren. The safety takes McLaren. The ball's just got to come out to Sims. It is immediate pressure,

and he's getting hit before he should get hit. But you have to make a decision at that mesh point, which way the safety is going, and let it go high with a little bit of loft where your receiver could be the only guy to run under it. It kills you. The next drive, they end up forcing a punt, and Sims Jr. fumbles the punt. Now of a sudden you're down again. And look, they had a heck of a comeback against Philadelphia. And Carson Wentz got, he won the Pamper's Bedwetter Award of the week last week against the Washington defense with poor play. Well, not everybody's going to do that every week.

And so to me, that was one of the biggest is in this game is you get down 17-0 and then 20-0, and they just don't have the firepower offensively to ever really overcome those things, especially against good football teams. To me, you're not going to overcome it. And so you get into that and you're like, look, we can sit here and say they beat themselves, but at the same time, I don't know, man,

do they beat themselves or is it just, if you don't take advantage of a couple key momentum opportunities, then you're in big trouble. Yeah. That was the biggest. I know that there are some other things, and obviously we're going to get to those other things, but that was the biggest one was you can't afford to make mistakes in critical situations.

And they did. Yeah, two turnovers in the first half were crucial, and that first one in particular. I mean, it's a 7-0 game. You've got a chance to tie it. It's still a 7-0 game, and you're going to get the ball back and decent field position when Sims Jr. fumbles. It's really hard when your team that isn't explosive.

offensively and is going to have a hard time, even though they did it last week, you know, being consistent offensively right now to blow, you know, a red zone opportunity off of a turnover and decent, you know, close to midfield position after a stop on a punt return. And, you know, it was still a 7-0 game in both of those situations. That was a shame that they couldn't take advantage of that. It is absolutely a shame. my other biggest i take away from this game or is it uh yeah okay whatever you want it to be whatever you want it to be

this is your segment yeah yeah yeah yeah okay and it goes back to earlier in the week with ron ravares saying that this offense won't be at its full capacity until at least next to season right and then the game which was about the process and it wasn't about the outcome it's about the process and then we're not going to take any risks at the end of the game and we're not going to use any of our timeouts at the end of the game. Although we're building culture at the same time. I just, I have a hard time mixing those two things thinking if I'm a eight-year veteran on that team that's a part of building that culture, to me, building the culture means always winning.

Now, they may have been out of the game, okay, when the timeout situation came up. They were down 2715, they'd not gotten the two-point conversion. But I think you still use timeouts. And you look at the Dallas game and they overcome 15 points in four minutes. To me, you don't quit in that situation. I think you can explain it and your explanations can be very spot on. But you're weighing out, there's always a chance. So you're saying there's a chance?

Ron wasn't saying there was a chance. And I also thought in that, and this is a decision that you could take whatever way you want to take, but as I was watching the game, with their offense being as bad as it was, when they got down in the red zone, late in the game down 20 to zero,

it took a penalty. I think what Morgan Moses had a hold on a run play, they get back down to third and seven, they don't get it in. I thought it was really four-down situation there. Because to me, when I looked at that, At most, you're going to get three more possessions, unless you get an onsides, and then it's crazy to think four.

And I'm watching this game going, are you going to stop Arizona in all of their possessions? And all of their three, because it didn't seem like they were. So I thought you needed seven points down 20 to zero. Yeah. And that's not a huge a. The huge is not trying to win a game and putting it in it on process. Yeah, you know I'm going to spend a little bit of time on that, although that's not, you know, that's down the list in terms of my, you know, the things I didn't like category. But what were your, what were your, you know, the things you liked from yesterday?

Well, there's some more. It is. Oh, well, then get to them. But, I mean, we can get to all of them. I mean, one of the mms, I thought Terry McLaurin was awesome in this game. I thought moving him around, he was really good. I thought it didn't matter. Patrick Peterson was on him or not. His burst coming out of his break was exceptional. His ability to run after the catch was good. They had to get him more involved.

I could not believe on the Arizona side of things that they didn't bracket Terry and say somebody else on your team is going to have to beat us. Clearly they believed in Patrick Peterson, but I could not believe after a couple catches in the third quarter into the fourth quarter where he's making place that they just didn't say he won't beat us. But I thought Terry McLaurin was really good. I thought they ran the ball okay well in the late in the second half. Now maybe it's because they're up, but even throughout the game early, there were some runs that Antonio Gibson looked good. McKissick looked better. Definitely. But on the A side of it, I just don't necessarily believe that they're using Antonio

Gibson to his full extent. And maybe that's because the offense isn't going to see its full potential of 2021. He's really underselling the offense's potential for this year, which, by the way, you know this about me. I'd much prefer to hear that and have them overachieve than hear how ready they are

and how they're going to have one of the top rushing attacks in the NFL or, you know, what we've heard for the last 20 years, which except for Joe's years, which is a lot of, you know, bullshit, you know, bragging and overpromising. I actually like the fact that he's underselling everything right now. Yeah,

I understand that that's the state of the NFL, but at the same time, you can't undersell and undersell to your team. Like, hey, we got ourselves down. And you know what? You guys cost yourself the game. It was you guys that cost yourself the game. And so now we're just not going to take timeouts and we're going to survive this game. We don't want any more injuries moving forward.

I don't want to put you guys in a spot where you're going to get hurt because you're down. Like, I didn't like that comment. Like, I just didn't want guys. They're out there to play. Yeah. I want to keep the last two minutes in what happened there until I get to it, because we're going to spend some time on that because I was not satisfied at all with the action, nor was I satisfied with the explanation.

But we'll spend more time on that in a little bit. But what else you got? A couple of things I liked it. I thought KPL was good on defense. too. I thought he looked like he could play this week. Last week he was my most up and down player throughout the game. I thought he looked good on defense.

Some of the blitzes they brought with Bostick I liked on defense. I think Del Rio can really put together some blitz packages and get some guys free. Because he did it two weeks in a row. I think Chase Young still looked really good in that game. I do. Yeah, me too. It's just you look at it and some of it is you have some weaknesses. Tackling was a problem.

it's Kyler Murray, I get that, but man, he made Troy Apki look bad a couple times. He made Landon Collins look really bad on a touchdown that got called back. That first touchdown run that got called back, he just straight out ran him. Landon Collins blown a coverage early to give up the first throw to DeAndre Hopkins. Tackling throughout, mistackles on Hopkins. I told you on Friday, they're going to have to tackle this team and throw a lot of balls underneath. It's a good team, and Kyler Murray is going to make a lot of people look. silly. He really is

tremendous football player. Wasn't that good? I mean, there's just I thought he was. The second touchdown run he had, he barely even, he barely put any move on Apkey and Apkees just falling down. Yeah, Apkees struck. They're giving him so much credit to

be so good. And I think that's a problem. That safety position is going to be a problem. I mean, Andy Isabella over the top, early in the ballgame. You call him on Friday. You said, you said, they got to be careful of Visibeli. He didn't play much if at all last week. And he's the guy that, you know, you loved coming out of UMass. And if he's on the field, they better be aware of

them. And they apparently were not. I'll tell you one of the big ums I had from the game. And this was just, this was in our favor. The fourth down where they went for it, took Murray out from under center. Sent him in motion behind to the right. Everyone's eyes were on Kyler Murray and they run it back the other way. That was a well-designed play, man. You're going to go for it on some fourth down situations. Let's have some fun stuff. Like you sent Kyler Murray in motion and then you run a reverse coming from the other

side. No one saw that coming. That was great. That was a great design. Doesn't sweat have to be in contain mode there with all that action? You would think he would? I mean, there were a couple of read options early in the game where sweat and Carrigan are just chasing the back down.

Like, oh, here I come. Tyler Murray's pulling it. And you're like, coach, here's the thing. You can't leave Kyler Murray one-on-one for a linebacker. Even if Landon plays it just right, the down safety to the side that Murray's going to go, or KPL plays it just right, he's going to make a

miss. If I'm playing Arizona and they're running read option, I am forcing the handoff all day. Right. I'm never letting Kyler Murray run. Make him hand it off. you take one player out of the backside and look it might be a six-yard run but collar murray might be 50 at any second yeah that that to me some of the run stuff with collar murray i thought they needed a better plan for i mean he's scrambling around making plays whatever but you're letting him get designed runs that's tough

yeah what else um i thought jimmy morland was pretty average in this game i i think there was a third and eight that Murray made a great back shoulder throw to D'Andre Hopkins, which he's a, he's a problem. That guy's awesome. But Jimmy Morland's sitting there keen quarterback, and he's laid on his break. And I'm thinking, it's third down and you're basically man on man with Hopkins. I mean, I know he's in his own situation there, but you're basically, he's in your spot. I'd play Hopkins.

I'd just say, you know what? I bet he's going to throw it to him. Yeah, that's probably a good choice. What happened on that first touchdown to Hopkins where he was wide open? Well, Landon Collins looks like he's in a quarter's coverage right there, and he's just froze at the goal line. I think that Landon Collins was thinking about the play he had gotten outrun two plays before that got called back.

He was like, I'm going to watch this quarterback. He has not going to out run me. This little road runner. Oh, balls over my head. I mean, it's amazing to see how wide open, the best player not named. the quarterback got on that touchdown. And Collins, you know, puts his hands over his helmet like, oops, I forgot him. He got behind me.

Well, yeah, and it's third and goal, which is unfortunate because those are the things. You got to have good red zone defense. That was terrible red zone defense. It was bad red zone defense. My last couple is from this game. Dwayne Haskins does not have any touch. No. And you can say that Logan Thomas dropped a couple balls.

you can say that Gibson dropped one on the sideline on a wheel route. Those are not, you, who was it? Inman maybe tried to catch a ball over the middle of the field high and up. Dude, those are hard catches when the ball's coming in like a lightning bolt. Like he missed Logan Thomas in the back of the end zone. That was the worst one. I mean, that's a touchdown with just a little bit of air underneath it. You just, I feel like a lot of these, he's airing on the,

side of not turning the ball over. And I like that about him, that he's not turning the ball over. But there's another way to throw it. My problem when I was looking at this game again and some of the touch issues, he can't throw it with touch unless he sidearms it. So he threw a shallow crossing route to Sims Jr. early in the game. And he's got Sims Jr. right in front of him. He's got a sidearm that ball to take something off of it. Good point. That was after the turnover. I know the player talking about that. He does not have an off-speed pit. Yeah. Like he's the pitcher that has to sidearm it to throw a slider.

They're like, here comes the slider. I mean, it doesn't, that is irrelevant because there's no one hitting. But I just don't see him being versatile as a thrower of the football. I see him having a fastball and that's it. And so right now, I think that's a problem for him because you have to be able to make throws in different ways. So they're catchable balls for your guys. I didn't, a lot of the balls that hit hands, those are still really tough catches, Kev.

And they're not in the position. He's not putting it on their body where they want. And I just don't think he ever sets his feet right to throw. And I know that he looks poised back there. And I don't, I think he feels comfortable back there. But his technique in the way he's moving his lower body is so out of place to make accurate throws throughout the game. You know, right after the turnover, you know, they went on,

in attack mode. They threw it to the tight end ball, was one of those quick release plays. And then the play you're talking about the throw to, after the penalty to Sims, is really, you nailed it. It's like a sidearm throw, which is, you know, I think it's before the turnover, obviously. But Sims catches it, but he seems a little bit more comfortable. I got a lot on Dwayne, and I want you to respond to it, but I want you to finish up before I get started. Really, I mean, one of my last things is Brandon Sheriff gets hurt. Brandon Sheriff hadn't played well in the first game.

Although I heard someone say that he and Morgan Moses got game balls, I thought Morgan played well, but Brandon didn't the first game. And Brandon was giving up pressures and didn't look like he was playing well before he went out in this game. But that said, he still is your best offensive linemen. So if you have another injury there, and we'll see what West Swicer's going to be.

But, man, you have no depth up front. Duran Christian is not good enough right now. I think if Duran's better, you get more out of West Martin, but that left side because of that is not good enough right now. Now all of a sudden, you're going to put in another young player on the right side. I mean, the brand of sheriff injury could hurt these guys. And I just, in kind of summing this whole thing up, offensively, they aren't there.

I don't know if it's next year. I don't know if it's this year. But I also don't think they have any intermediate to deep passing game. Everything that Duane's completing is right in front of him. Their spot routes, their swing routes, their screen routes. I mean, and some are good. Like you get Sims on a third and seven screen and Sims gets a first out. Like those are good plays.

But you can't live on those plays. And right now, I don't see them showing any versatility, even play design-wise, to get big-time open looks down the field. Yeah. You know, the biggest number, the largest percentage of callers this morning on radio had an issue with Dwayne. And they want to bail on Dwayne at this point. Obviously, tomorrow you'll have a film breakdown of this game and his grade. I personally disagree with bailing on him at this point. First of all, what do you got? Secondly, I think there are a lot of issues. I think that this is the the nature of most young quarterbacks. You know, you're going to have some good moments and you're going to have some rough moments. But, you know, overall, and I'll give you, in my game, take some of my thoughts, but overall, you know, your opinion of Dwayne yesterday was what,

and your opinion of Dwayne moving forward is what? Well, my opinion to Dwayne, first of all, he, for whatever reason, gets better when he's down 17 points. Yeah. He doesn't lose poise. he doesn't feel like he's ever out of a game. You just got to start a game that way. Yeah. You just got to find a way to start that way.

Have someone go smack you in the face a couple of times in the locker room or some weird thing. Do something to get yourself going early in a ballgame. I do like that he can battle back. I just don't know if he's seeing the intermediate part of the field right now. And I don't know if he's seen deep. But I also say, I don't know if Scott Turner believes that they can get the ball down the field. And it's not just DeWain, which is why I wouldn't bail on him right now.

A lot of times you talk to a coordinator and you say, hey, let's dial some things up to attack the middle of the field between 10 and 20 yards. Well, that also means you have to have someone over the top to push safeties off, which means you need a couple seconds to throw the ball. And so there's this whole not a ton of weapons with speed over the top, not necessarily enough time to throw the ball, so you don't really have time to push coverage. There's a lot combined here that make it tough. They're going to have to find some ways to get the ball down the field. They're going to have to find a way to get Duane more clean pockets. And maybe that's move him more because they didn't move him a lot in this game. Like you talked about

boots and stuff. There was not a lot of that. Right. There wasn't. They didn't find a way to change the launch point of the defensive linemen. They knew where they were coming after him at. And so they're going to have to find ways to create that. The thing with Duane is you just get so worried that you can't keep missing throws. You can't keep missing throws down the field. The ones you take and you've got to be better. Yeah. I mean, the touch thing, the footwork thing, some games feeling the pressure and reacting to it

by being able to extend the plays and then other games like yesterday early, he almost moved into some of the pressure, didn't have real good pocket presence or feel. And at the same time, you would admit, right, he was under siege much of the time. There was not, the pass protection was a problem yesterday. And, you know, he didn't have enough time to throw. And I actually, part of what I was going to get into here with my game take and we'll get to it here in a second, is I actually thought Scott Turner did a really good job in the second half of getting to the quick game. and throwing some screens.

They ran a bubble to Sims Jr. They ran a middle screen to Logan Thomas. And there were some things that I thought he ran to sort of nullify or negate the pass rush. They ran the ball a little bit better, mostly out of the gun. And I think that it took some of the pressure off him. But we did not see any boots. We didn't see him getting outside the pocket and throwing. I thought some of the play action dropback was immediately rushed.

And I thought he had a problem with that. But, you know, I think it's one of those things with Dwayne where the bottom line is, there's a lot going on there, and a lot of it's him and a lot of it isn't. You know what, Cooley? I think there was a chance for McLaurin to bail him out on a long throw. I thought that was a catchable ball down the left sideline. I thought Logan Thomas had a chance on the first third down of the game to pull in a ball that wasn't super poorly thrown. I thought his best throw may have been to Gibson on a route down that far.

right side line that he actually, you know, didn't throw with a lot of touch, but on a rope, it was actually a perfect throw in, in traffic. And I thought, you know, Gibson could have bailed him out and helped him out a little bit. I got you, but you're talking about the first throw to Logan Thomas being a freaking rifle that barely touched his hands that he had to go out and extend for. You're talking about a ball to Logan Tom or to Gibson that if you freeze frame it the second that it gets to his hands, sure. That's a, he threw it into the bucket right. there. Right. It's just he blew the back end of the bucket off. Yeah. What about the one, what about the one to McClorin deep that McLaurin, who was brilliant? McClorn dropped that ball.

That to me was his best ball of the day. Should that ball have been thrown in that spot because of a safety or should it have been thrown inside where maybe McLaren has a chance to take it and go? Well, I can look at it again when we look at it, but say whatever you want to say, McLaurin makes a good over-the-shoulder adjustment, and I think he can catch that ball. All right. What else you got? And if you don't have anything else, I'll get to my game take, which I'm sure. Get to your game take. Okay. Before we do it, let me quickly talk about erectile dysfunction, because it's never easy to talk about it, coolly. Usually we just brush it off or blame ourselves saying things like, you know, I lost my mojo, or we avoid it all together

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get roman.com slash Kevin DC and complete an online visit. A rectile dysfunction used to be tough to tackle, but now there's Roman. Complete an online visit today to connect with a healthcare professional and take care of it, guys. Go to get roman.com slash Kevin DC today. If approved, you'll get $15 off your first order of ED treatment. That's getRoman.com slash Kevin DC. Getroman.com slash Kevin D.C. All right. Let me start with an overarching theme, if I might, which is what we used to do back in the day. I wasn't really that discouraged by that loss. I mean, there are things that I was concerned with. There are things that bothered me, which we're going to get into the Rivera end. But I see a better team than the team last year.

Now, that's not saying much. I'll concede that. But I also see a team with potential. I don't know if it's going to be realized. I don't know when it'll happen. But it's a reason to pay attention more this year. And really, it's the defense more than anything else. And I'll start with the things that I liked.

I liked Chase Young again. Cooley, it's so obvious they got this right through two games. And I don't think it's going to be something that we look back on and say, oh, remember the first two games, but that was Fools Gold. No, this dude's for real. He's so strong. He's so quick. He's got so many moves in Cooley.

His motor is nonstop. And when he tackles people, it's like he swallows them whole and just throws them. Like he's a star. You know, I think it's interesting to watch him line up on both sides, left side side. They did that a little bit last week, you know, but I just, I have a feeling that Chase Young's going to end up in the category of things I liked out of 16 games this year in 14 of them. I like just the overall team speed defensively is different this year. You know, the upfront speed is obvious, you know, is obvious. But KPL played really well yesterday, Kevin Pierre-Lewis, and he can run.

I think Bostick can run. And I said that last year, and I remember people pushing back on it. And we haven't even seen probably their fastest linebacker, Cole Holcomb yet. So the overall team speed, especially in the front seven, is impressive. And I think they're going to have some really, really good games. I think yesterday, when you're playing a team and a player like Murray, you know, it's tough to get stops on every single drive-through, four quarters. The 49ers who were the NFC champions last year and had arguably the best defense in football, they ran out of gas and gave up two long drives in the fourth quarter to this guy.

They're really good. I thought they got pressure early. I thought they tackled well early. I think it's really hard against Murray to tackle. And that's going to be a challenge for anybody that faces the Cardinals this year. But I think that the defense, I think, had a decent day overall. It wasn't the A plus day that they had last week, but against that team and that player, I thought they did enough, especially through the first two and a half to three quarters to win the game if they had gotten, you know, more offensive production. Terry McCloren's on the things I like the list, obviously. You'll go through it tomorrow in your offensive film breakdown, but it just seems like he gets open very easily. And he's really much better after the catch with

speed, but also some, you know, tackle-breaking ability. Seven catches, 125 yards, and a touchdown. He was clearly one of the two best players on the team, the best player offensively on the field. But like you, I thought Gibson and McKissick both played well. You know, Gibson, I mentioned to you last week, he runs a little bit upright, but you know what? He's more physical, coolly than I thought. You know, the Memphis players, if you watch that conference, you get a lot of finesse football

over the years. He runs with a physical presence. He's a big dude and he finishes runs and it's hard to bring him down. He had 13 carries for 55 yards and McKissick yesterday looked like the McKissick I remember from Detroit in particular. Quick, decisive, you know, eight carries, 53 yards. That helped. A lot of that came in the second half. On my list of things that I liked, I thought Scott Turner, you know, I'm sure I can go back and find some quick game in the first half. But I thought he really in the second half realized we got to protect him. Ball's got to be out quickly.

We've got to run some screens. We've got to run the football, especially in spots where maybe they're not expecting some run. I just think that he realizes if you drop Dwayne back, you know, too much, it's a problem. And, you know, especially yesterday because they got after it and they got after that offensive line early. I even thought early down play action was a problem. But I thought Turner did a good job to change things up and recognize that a little bit. The other thing on my things that I liked list, I thought Ron Rivera's challenge late in the game on the 12 men on the field was a really good catch. You know, it was a third and five. They don't get it. It's setting up for a fourth and five. They

throw the challenge flag. I'm like, what are they challenging? And then he was challenging 12 men on the field and they caught him. I like the way they go hurry up and up tempo a little bit, and they caught him with 12 men. And, you know, at that point, he was still in the game. You know, his head was still in the game, 27-9. I thought that they took advantage of it on a third and one. It went from fourth and five to third and one, and they took the shot to Sims, which was, I think, more of a drop-back play. The list of things that I didn't like, I'll finish up with the Rivera thing, which we can spend time on. But, some of this is repetitive based on what you said. You can't turn the ball over like they did twice

with the game right there to be in the game early. You get a pain pressure, a Collins interception. You're in the red zone. You pick up a first down in the red zone. And you get the backside knock on Haskins and the fumble, which Chandler Jones picks up. And you've blown an opportunity to come away with points in a game that, you know, could have, early on, you could have put some pressure on Arizona. Then you get a big stop after that, and Sims Jr. fumbles the punt return. He was terrible yesterday as a kick returner and a punt returner. The offensive line had the same issues they had last week. And I'm glad you pointed out Sheriff because I had a lot of people saying, well, once they lost Sheriff, I didn't think he was very good when he was in there.

They were better when they lost Sheriff. Well, there you go. Maybe. I mean, it seemed like it. They started operating offensively, so their offense ended up being better at that moment. I don't know if Switzer was better or was elsewhere. This is a big weakness. I asked you at the end of last week, what's your biggest concern right now?

And you said, offensive line. This is the big issue right now. And this is where we're going to have to, in my opinion, we're going to have to be patient. I'm going to get to Dwayne here in more detail. But we all talked about during the off season and during the preseason. Well, we don't know that they have weapons. We think that the offensive line's going to be a problem. So how are you going to evaluate Dwayne?

Well, you're going to be able to evaluate him. There's a lot of things that are obvious, like his footwork and good, and he's inaccurate because of that footwork, and he doesn't throw with great touch. But there are other things, too, and that's where I'll go to now, which is Dwayne. He was under pressure. Part of the problem yesterday, unlike, you know, if you go back to some other games where he's been under pressure, where he's handled it better, he didn't have a good. good feel for the pressure yesterday. I've, you know, I've complimented his extend the play ability

because I didn't think he had it coming out of Ohio State. And I think he had more of it last year than I thought. And I think we saw some of that last week. I thought last week he handled some of the blitz pressure well, especially on that inman throw, third and eight. I do think, you know, he looked uncomfortable yesterday. And I think Turner got him on track in the second half. One of the things that I guarantee you, and I talked about this this morning, ad nauseum, that got overlooked by a lot of people that watch this game, is that in the second half, that team had the ball four times offensively, and they scored on three of those four drives. The first drive was five plays in a punt, and then they scored on their final three drives, two touchdowns and a field goal. So they got

him into rhythm with the quick game. They ran some screens. They ran the ball better. He was feeling stuff a little bit better. There's still some throws and some accuracy issues. But let's not overlook that, because this will lead into the Rivera thing too, let's not overlook it offensively. It's not like they were inept. They scored

on three of four second half drives. Goddy struggles with touch throws. And the worst play of the day was the sack he took that knocked him out of field goal range, Cooley. That was, you know, I know that sometimes when you're in the pocket, and you have that immediate pressure and you've got nowhere to go with it.

You're afraid of a grounding penalty. But you've got to figure out a way to get out of there and unload the ball so that you can get three points out of that. That's a tough sack to take there. We talked about the receivers that potentially could have helped him out a little bit. But look, he's got a lot to improve on. But like I've mentioned many times before, and you said this. same thing. He doesn't run and hide when things are going poorly. He hangs in there, he competes,

and they put together some good drives in the second half. I think this is one of those things where it's not going to get easier. They get Miles Garrett, Richardson, Denzel Ward, and Cleveland next week. Then they've got the Baltimore defense. You know, it's not going to get easier. And by the way, I'm not defending him here, which some of you have accused me of, which is fine. I think there's something there. I'm not guaranteeing that it will be revealed and it will come to, you know, and he'll end up being the guy or even a guy. But I want to see more.

I don't, this is his second start with a new coaching staff in the most unique of off seasons of all time. It's only his ninth start overall. There's going to be some ups and downs with Dwayne. And some of you can't handle that. Well, you know, grow a pair. And if you can't, take the day off, take your wife or girlfriend antiquing or to the movies, you know, or get out on your bike and go for a ride and we'll keep you posted from the podcast.

But you're going to have with a young quarterback more times than not, especially with new coaching staff the second and less than a year. By the way, he went through two head coaches last year. year. And he's on this one this year. There are going to be some moments that aren't going to look pretty. And there are going to be some moments where you're like, maybe he can do it. I think we got to give it more time. The secondary, I thought. Before you move on, from Duane, really quick. Please. I missed what I thought was one of the worst plays of the game, not just on Duane, but offense in general. The first drive of the third quarter,

Yeah. They end up getting a good play to Terry McLaurin on a first down, and Duane scrambles on a second down, and you get a third and two. And Cam Sims ended up getting an OPI on a pick, which was egregious. All you got to do is run through his shoulder. Don't put your hands on it. Yeah, he did. It's terrible.

You can't coach that as a pick. But Duane missed that throw to Inman badly. Badly. You can't, like, that's the thing that concerns me the most is missing things. throws directly in front of his face. That was an easy throw. And that was not even close. Yeah.

That, those are the plays that are scary. It's, so for me, it's not necessarily always the presence. It's not necessarily the poised, his ability to overcome. I think he has some of the mental aspects of it that you need. It's, you've got to make throws. Like, you, if that, man, if that's no, no penalty. call? We're going to look at that and go, oh my God. There was, there was another one where he threw it sort of at the feat too, or maybe that was from last week. I know the play you're

talking about. It was it, it was terrible, and it was a terrible penalty by Sims. I mean, come on, dude. Seriously. Come on, man. I mean, that, that's just way too obvious. But yeah, the throw was terrible. I actually, it almost seemed like Inman was surprised and he shouldn't have been because he was the one being screened for. There was a couple of times when I was playing with Donovan. And I really like Donovan McNab. I just, it wasn't a good year. There was, I'll never forget this.

I could actually pull this up on film and tweet it out. I ran an option or a choice route down on the, in the red zone. And about the seven yard line, I'm wide into this walk, fucking touch it in. And the ball one hops to me. I'm the one reading at one hops on a five-yard out route. you're like i literally you can pull it on film i put my hands out at my side like what the fuck the fuck is going on here like there were times when i had six yard outbreaking routes and the

ball's coming at me like a hundred miles an hour there was one on a monday night game i'm it's philadelphia we got smoked never forget this in the rain we're down whatever we're down 20 plus points and i run a five yard out route to soft coverage and it's like a 240 mile an hour fastball. Yeah. Like, those are plays, though, that as the season wanes on, players start looking at it, like, could you just get the ball in my hands? I mean, I'm watching this play again.

And this is him on a little bit of a rollout. It's third and two. It's the play, you need to pick play. And the third and two with the guy who's getting picked for, you know, coming into the clear towards the sideline, and he just guns it over his head. It's a terrible throw. It's your classic West Coast, Joe Montana to Jerry Rice, third down play. It's a terrible

throw. Bill Walsh's speed right, there's sprint right, with a quick flat. And you're right. Had that not been penalized, it would have been a bigger play in the game, and we would have been like, oh my God, are you serious? I remember in the moment thinking

maybe there was an defensive hold there, but usually on that play it's going to be an offensive pass interference. I knew right to second if I came out. But yeah, the other two things on my things I didn't like list before we get to the Rivera stuff is the secondary. You know, they obviously had some coverage mixups. I also think, you know, it's really, I think Murray's like

the kind of guy that's just going to create nightmares because he's going to buy so much time. And by the way, Kooley, he's got a gun. He's got a really strong arm. Like to me, I'm watching him yesterday, and we didn't see a lot of him last year. I'm watching him and I'm thinking he's Vic, he's Jackson, but he's also Mahomes. Like the way he can throw the ball with great strength on the run. And how many of those plays, and this is where I thought the defense had a good, decent day, how many plays was he running around and he couldn't find anybody and he just threw it away as he was approaching the sideline?

Like that's good defense. But he's spectacular. The last thing, the special teams killed him all day. Sims Jr. was just horrible on returns. He had the devastating fumble, but they opened the game from their own eight yard line because he got a bad return and there was a penalty. He had another return from three yards deep in the end zone to the 17. He had another return out to the 16. He averaged on kickoff returns. Three kickoff returns, he averaged 14 yards per return. Now, maybe the blocking wasn't there. That's possible. But, you know, The fumble punt was a killer, and they need better special teams play from him, because I love them on offense, and I think they need to get him the ball more on offense, but he's not impressed as a punt or kickoff for Turner quite yet. It's funny because I never do this when I say Redskins win if on Friday.

And I just said Arizona is always good on special teams. Can't lose the game with big plays on special teams. Now, I think I know getting blocked punts and stuff, but a fumble is the same deal. You can't give up a huge play on special teams. special teams. No, you can't. All right, let's get to Rivera, tapping out at the end. And then the explanation for those that missed it, he said he didn't want, he said the game wasn't winnable and he didn't want his players to get hurt. The action was bad. The explanation was completely off. Exposing his players to injuries, really, Ron, will then, why on the last

play of the game with 25 seconds left did you line up and run a play? Why didn't you take a kneel down and get off the field. If you were really concerned about injuries, then that final play run with 25 seconds left should have been a kneel down. Because it's interesting they hand the ball off to Gibson and there's a big pile up on top of Rueh. I mean, Rueh could have been hurt on that last play. Would have been better off seeing them throw the football than run that into a pile of people. It's an unsatisfactory answer. Look, there's a honeymoon period here. And obviously, more than anything, I am rooting for old coach Ron's health more than anything else. But if he thinks he had issues in Charlotte where there were complaints about clock management

and game management with Rivera, it was one of the criticisms of him in Charlotte. You can't do that, coach, in this town and expect people not to know what you should have done. You know, a culture change includes not tapping out at the end of a game where there's at least a prayer. Were they going to win that game? Most likely not. I understand that. We just went through six years of idiotic clock management and game management, okay? We're going to criticize, we're not going to let this go. If it happens again, I'm going to be really pissed off. But when you're down 30 to 15 with two minutes to go, all right, it's a two-score game potentially, and your offense has scored on three straight drives.

It's the best your offense has looked all day, maybe even including last week. It has driven the ball three times and scored three times. You had to call timeouts actually before the two-minute warning, but after the two-minute warning, if you use two-timeouts, you get the ball back with about a minute 45 and a timeout left down 30 to 15. Okay, that is a touchdown, even if you get it with 22 seconds left and you kick and it's 30 to 22. Hey, let's line up and do with Dallas did. Let's see if we can get an onside kick. You know, are we going to get the onside kick? About a 1 in 10 probability.

So you're going to have to recover the onside kick, but you do not tap out at the end of a two-score game. You bow out when you're getting your ass kicked and you've been blown out and there's literally no chance to win the game. You don't do that there. I'm sure I've seen a coach do that before. I personally think he got confused on the score. I think the injury thing was, was bullshit after he realized, okay, fine. Whatever happened, when's the last time 30 to 15 with your offense having scored on its previous three drives? Have you seen a coach completely pull the plug on a game? I told you last night, Jay got killed for it a couple years ago. Yeah, he did in that charger game.

But in that game, the context of that was at one point, he asked Kirk what he liked in the second half, and Kirk said, screens. That's perfect timing, giving how bad my boy was yesterday. But you do agree. When your quarterback says, you know, I really think screens. Yeah. Your play caller goes, I can't do.

What do you want me to do? My quarterback has completely lost track of where he's at in this game. Coach and quarterback were not getting along late in 2017. They were not. Hey, we're down 21. What do you like here? Dive. I think we go duo.

Maybe we break one. What I'm talking about is, you know, they're playing quarters coverage. What do you think you can get over the top? Like, what safety can you manipulate me? Yeah. There was context to that game. I don't know in this one. Also, I thought in terms of the score and the game getting away at late, this is an interesting call.

You and I have talked about this a few times, but you're down 2715 and you choose to go for two. At one point, you're going to have to get the two point. You're going to have to score two touchdowns and you're going to have to get the two point to make it a 10 point game. I don't think you go for it until you score the second touchdown because if you're only down 11, it's a touchdown field goal. It makes it more relevant to continue. you in that game to not have to tap out. I mean, now down 12, you're saying, down 2715, you're saying, okay, we have to have two touchdowns.

How much time do we have possession-wise to get stops, get two touchdowns? I mean, it really didn't matter because Kingsbury did a heck of a job when with Arizona up 2715, throwing the ball down the field. That was the worst defensive drive when they gave up three points after the last Washington score. Yeah. They just got gashed through the air. But at that moment, I think down 11 is better than down 12.

I don't have a problem with your logic. I mean, the argument would be better. It's better to know now that you're going to need two touchdowns than later. But I always think about extending the game, right? So, you know, because extending the game also puts a little bit more pressure on the opponent as well. If they see 2716, they know. no, eight and three. Instead of 27, 15, we're up 12 and they need two touchdowns. It should have had no bearing on how he handled the final, you know, few minutes of that game. It should, it shouldn't

have, but it does because it makes the possessions thonger. And I'll just give you my one argument to this. And this goes back to something that you say all the time. Let's say you have the ball on offense with anywhere between a minute and two minutes and you're down 11 or down. Or down 10. You know you're going to have to get an onsides kick. You can kick a 50-yard field goal, not waste a bunch of time, and then be down eight. If you get the onsides kick, then you have a chance to go down and score. It's a one-score game down eight. Where is if you have to force it down the field for two touchdown, two touchdown drives, they can play so soft on defense. So it allows you the opportunity to get the three. You just gave the answer. Your answer is

100% right. It's 100% right. And that's why you kick at, 27 to 9 to get it to 2716. Now the first one you go for because you're down 24, you're in the fourth quarter and you're thinking your best chance, which is a long shot, is three touchdowns, three two point conversions to tie. The first one I'm good with. But the second one, you just gave the right answer, which is if it's 16 and you do get the ball back and it's 40 seconds to go and you're in field goal range and you just picked up a penalty and knocked you. I mean, you can just put the field goal team out there. So you have, you've created a 2719 and now you've really got a legit shot if you can get an onside kick. I'm with you. You're 100% right. There's that.

And then I've talked about the first field goal. Look, you're down three scores. The explanation of I didn't want to get shut out to me is not the proper explanation. He didn't say that, did he? Yeah, he did. He said we didn't want to get shut out. Okay. We hadn't scored. No one wants to get shut out. That's really interesting. That is, I don't like. like that at all. I actually... So I think there, down three scores, you just, you try to score, you try to get it in the end zone on fourth down. You got two plays on third and seven to know we got to get it, we got to get seven yards here to score seven points. So we have a chance to not be down two scores.

I mean, you were still down two scores, 20 to three. I didn't, so let me just tell you why I didn't have a problem with the fourth and goal kick. First of all, what were there left? Didn't think you were going to get it in? No, I did not think that was it. I mean, that would be the answer. And the truth of the matter is in watching this game, even though maybe it doesn't make sense to everybody. But I always felt like the defense was capable of making some plays, either to get off the field or making a big play to force a turnover. And it was fourth and goal from the six. And you were still in the third quarter with, I don't know, three, four minutes left. It was something like that, three or four minutes left. And I actually think that if I had been the decision maker there, I would have kicked the field goal. If it's fourth and goal to two, fourth and and goal at the one definitely, fourth and goal from the six where your quarterback just airmailed

a touch pass that would have been a touchdown. I don't think I'm going to get the fourth and six. And I think my chances of scoring, and by the way, it also lifts my defense up a little bit to say, all right, we're on the board. If we can get a quick three and out, you know, or even a turnover, we can get back into this game and we can cut it to a two score game. I didn't have a problem with that. I guess my suggestion is not necessarily the fourth and seven. It's trying to understand how to get two plays. And as a play caller, knowing you could run it on third and seven to get it before and four. Yeah, I got you.

Although they had the right play on third and goal, the quarterback just didn't execute. So true. So I totally agree with you in the 2715 because of the logic. It puts a little bit more pressure on the opponent, and it allows you to opt for the field goal. you know, if you're getting down to, you're not going to have a chance for two possessions if you have to score a touchdown on the first, and you can just send your field goal team out there and kick the field goal with 25 seconds left so you have at least a prayer. But bottom line is, Ron Rivera failed. The action was wrong. The explanation wasn't a good one. You know, you could even take it to another degree. You could say if that was really in his mind, then he should have taken his defensive starter. out of the game on the Cardinals' final drive before they kicked the field goal. And he didn't. He had all of his, you know, he had his starters out there.

I know that you can't replace everybody, but you could have come in with more players that hadn't played. And, you know, I'm watching right now, you know, there are four minutes left. Chase Young's on the field. Bostick's on the field. Everybody's on the field. So if that were really the issue, then he should have taken his defensive players out the field because they were the ones that were at that point gassed. they were the ones that actually probably had a higher probability of injury

than the offense who had just scored and gone up and down the field three times. That's the part of it. You could have really claimed the process. We wanted to get our young players an opportunity to play. Yeah. You know, and you know what? I would have been upset because I would have said, you know, it's 2715 coach. If you hold them to a field goal here, it's a two-score game.

And if he had said, nope, my mindset is on the future. And I think our defense was gassed. And I was afraid that we could end up with some more injuries here. this is a long-haul thing. I would have respected the answer more if he had actually done something that backed up his assertion of why he tapped out, that he was concerned about injury. But he didn't do it on defense, and he didn't do it with one play in 25 seconds left. He lines up in shotgun and hands the ball off to Gibson.

And there's a big pile up on all poor Chase Rui. I mean, that was not the, if you're really, if that's the reason you're doing it, you've already tapped out. You've already conceded the game by not using your timeouts. Take a knee and get off the field. And then tell everybody, I thought that the long-shot opportunity of winning that game wasn't worth a potential devastating injury to our players who were gassed on defense and gassed on offense.

I would have respected it more, but he didn't do anything to actually proved that that was in his mind in the moment. Correct. I wanted to mention a couple of other things about the game and I'll do so right after this word from Indochino. Hi, this is Paul Tenorio from the athletic. When I buy dress shirts off the rack, I tend to end up with shirts that drape off my broader shoulders and look boxy on me. Just the other day on vacation, we took a family photo and the shirt I wore just looked way too big and wide. It was amazing how much better the photo looked when I switched into my new Indochino shirt. My wife and I had taken my measurements at home on Indochino.com and sent them in,

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appointment and shop online at Indochino.com. And right now, you'll get $30 off any purchase of $39 or more when you enter code athletic at checkout. That's Indochino.com promo code athletic. A few more coolly observations real quickly, and then we can wrap it up and move on to some of the games from yesterday. Just back to Kyler Murray for a moment. You talked about Friday. One of the things you said,

you were curious as to why they were seven-point favorites, and then you watch the tape and you realized why they were seven-point favorites. and then you watch the tape and you realized why they were seven-point favorites. They're just better. But my question is, you know, Russell Wilson right now is off to probably the MVP start of the year. I don't know. In two games, you're always going to have a lot of people, Lamar Jackson, Pat Mahomes, Russell Wilson, but Kyler Murray's in the conversation here.

And they have, they've got legit weapons, legit weapons. That division is so good, but right now, like, Arizona to me is, they went to San Francisco and wore out the 49ers. Like, they have a chance, by the way, listen to their schedule upcoming. Lions, Panthers, Jets. Like, they have a legit opportunity with that last, is it a last place schedule? I don't even know if it's a last place schedule. Maybe the Rams have the last place schedule. But they've got a chance to start off 5 and 0 with Murray.

Like, how good do you think this? team is, like relative to the rest of the NFC, but really specific to their division with the Rams, Seahawks, Cardinals, all 2 and O, and the 49ers at 1-1. I think that they are a very good football team. I think that they're a potential playoff team, and if they are a playoff team, that, depending on the way Kyler Murray plays, they have the ability to beat almost anybody. I don't think that they're one of the top defenses in the league. I think they have some true defensive talent.

I think that they're going to shut a lot of people down down the field. Peterson and Byron Murphy and Budapaker and a lot of their secondary is excellent. But I think that there will be some games where they give up 30 points against good offensive teams, teams that can really move it against them. To me, it's going to be, does Murray handle the football? Because he can turn it over. Yeah. And does he come through in big play situations?

It's almost, they remind me a lot of. of early Seattle, the way that Russell Wilson operated, where he can make every throw. Doesn't he have better arm strength? That's hard to say. I think Russell Wilson has great arm strength. I will say this, though, you know, Kyle O'Murray can, he can overthrow some balls. He overthrew three or four balls in that game where he had wide open receivers. He can miss throws as well. With without touch. Wilson.

It is funny, though. touch one of the other notes that I had written down from the game and this was later in the night after watching a lot of the Kansas City game again after watching Seattle play man if you if your kids a quarterback baseball or other sports are just the best thing in the world for them like that's the thing that I think a lot of young that Duane might lack is did he play any other sport. Right. That's maybe the thing with some of his touch throws. He's only throwing a football one way technique, technique pure over the top as a quarterback. And those young players are always taught to throw the ball hard. And Murray and Holmes and Wilson can make every throw with every

arm angle and they know when to put touch on the ball and they know how to put touch on the ball. I mean, it's just, it'll be interesting, you know, as people play less sports, if that continues that way if you see guys that are so single-tracked in the way they do things. And for me, watching these baseball players play quarterback, it is clearly an advantage. Well, they're also basketball players, you know, in the case of, you know, Mahomes. And it's so true. It is so true. And we've gotten away from that over the last 15, 20 years. I saw it, you know, as a coach, you know, as a youth coach and with boys playing sports, you know, those. those families, those parents that were so singly focused on one sport and becoming, you know,

turning that sport into a year-round thing, man, there is so much to gain by playing multiple sports, so much to gain, not to mention the fact that for the kid probably more times than not, it's more fun than being, you know, than working out while you could be playing a baseball game with your friends on a team for the school, you know, or basketball. And I think, you know, I think basketball athletes have always translated so well to football and certainly the baseball, the slide. I mean, look, we've said it about RG3 a lot. Like RG3 was like a track guy, not an other sport guy. You could see it. He didn't have vision. He didn't have the peripheral, you know, feel. He had straight line speed. Murray's like Vic, Murray's like Wilson,

Murray's like Mahomes. He is tiny, though, coolly. And your suggestion of putting a big hit on him, even if it cost you 15 yards, I don't even know if there were many opportunities. I guess on a couple of those plays towards the sideline where he threw it away at the last second, I guess you could have really leveled him if you'd wanted to. But he's something else. I think that team's really dangerous.

Yeah, I do think they're really dangerous. I don't think top to bottom, the best team in the NFC. But it goes back to the, I don't know, it goes back to 2012 when you watch Washington, when you watch Seattle, when you watch San Francisco, they could beat anybody on any given day because Murray on a third and 13 in a critical spot might scramble for a 55-yard touchdown. And you can't adjust to that. That's not something that you can handle defensively. No.

You can't. That's that really is the point there. Like there are only a couple of guys. Like there are dual threat guys. And then there are guys at that position that have this level of speed where they can drop back. And then they can run 50 yards for a touchdown. Like that's what this guy does. By the way, I want to see you.

And keep in mind, while you're seeing that it makes a big difference when D'Andre Hopkins is over there, Larry Fitzgerald's catching seven of seven targets. Christian Kirk's a good player. Isabella can make plays at any time. And so you can't just say, let's spy the quarterback. You're going to get waxed by Hopkins. Right. You're going to get waxed down the field to receivers. You're going to get matchups with Larry Fitzgerald as the number three on a three-man side in the slot against Bostick in a third down where Bostick's kind of got him in his zone.

and here's Larry. Like that's a mismatch all day. You're going to get matchups left and right. And that's one thing that Robert didn't necessarily have in 2012. I mean, he had Pierre, but he had to make so many of those plays. And Murray's got matchups. And they got a, and Kenyon Drake can run the ball. It's, they are a problem on offense.

I don't know if they're good enough defensively, especially if they were to have one injury on the outside and their secondary, which you never count on, but you never know. I don't know if all around they're good enough on the back end to not give up enough plays, that they end up having to make Murray Press a little bit. But they look like a team to me that will win 10 ball games. Yeah, to me too. And I think like all of these teams that have that explosive ability offensively,

it's always been this. Your best defense can be your offense. and if you can control the ball, if you can run the ball, if you can score, you know, offensively, then, you know, you constantly put the pressure on a guy like that to make every drive count and every drive matter. And Washington didn't do that yesterday. They had a chance to do it early. You know, they got the turnover in a 7-0 game. They got the stop in a 7-0 game after they turned it back. But then they turned it over again. and that was really, really crushing because I actually think that minus the turnovers, the two

turnovers in the first half, I think that this is a game, I'm not going to say that they win, but it's a completely different game. Without those two turnovers, you know, your half-time score more likely than not isn't 20 to nothing. You know, it may be something like 13 to 6 or 13 to 3 or, you know, 13 to 10 maybe, who knows. But you can't, this team is not a team that's going to be able to turn the ball over twice and not get a bunch of them back, which I do think they're going to have the potential to do this year. I think one of the things about this defense with the speed, especially up front with the pass rush pressure, you know, we're going to see some turnovers this year.

And it's been a while since we've seen a defense legitimately force turnovers and big, and have big plays. I think you're going to have that. I think we're going to have more short field opportunities. You know, I think that they can mess up Mayfield a little bit next week. I think one of the other things that came out of yesterday's game is, you know, even though Arizona, I guess, had some success running the ball with Drake. I mean, he had 86 yards on 20 carries.

The real damage came from Murray. Like, I think without the running quarterback, you have a chance to be a pretty good run-stopping team. I think I see that from this group. But anyway, That's it on this game, unless you've got a final thought. Just wasn't a good ballgame, but I told you Friday, this was a real challenge. This isn't an Arizona team that you're going to play, that Alex Smith played a couple years ago.

It wasn't a good ball game. I'm not going to take it and say, this is the end of the year. They can't beat anybody. Arizona was a better football team. And I told you it was a bad matchup for Washington. I did. I thought the way they played defense was the opposite of complimenting what Washington could do on offense. And so, yeah, I'm also not punning on Dwayne Haskins.

I do have true concerns. But at this point, I'm not playing Kyle Allen and I'm not playing Alex Smith. I'm finding out through 16 games if I'm drafting another quarterback next year. I'm with you on that. That's what I'm doing. I'm finding out if next year it's another quarterback. And then one other side note that I've thought about with Dwayne, look, you know that, I was with you.

I was critical of Duane coming out of Ohio State. He didn't play a ton in college. He had a heck of a year, his senior year, but a lot of that was on underneath throws where better receivers made plays against weaker defenders. And there was so much run after the catch. In looking at this, and also in drafting Duane, whoever drafted him, however they drafted him,

I think we all know that, but the process to that plan was that Alex Smith was going to be your starter for at least two more years. Dwayne to me was a guy that needed those two years. He was a guy that I... You drafted Dwayne after you thought Alex Smith would never going to play again. Yeah, you're right. You're right about that. Well, the person that drafted him didn't think Alex Smith was never going to play again.

The person that drafted him. By the way, that person and his wife... But that said, Dwayne to me was a guy that needed two years or three years. And he was a guy that would continue to learn, develop, watch how other questions. quarterbacks do it, understand offense, understand language. Now, maybe that wasn't best suited for him mentally. You never know. But to me, personally, he needed a little bit of time to develop. Sure. And so if it's a bad year, he is getting that time to develop. You're just going to have to see some more strides this year other than, man, he stays alive and fights and games when they're down

20 points. No, I hear you on that. That'll get old after a while. I'm with you. So I mean, even if it's not the best year and they were to draft someone, I wouldn't see it as the end for Dwayne Haskins. I just, I want to see what he's got with Scott Turner as the receivers start to develop for him in this offense. Can they find some playmakers? Can they understand what people are doing? And what is he? Because you should know at the end of this year. You do.

You will know. You will know at the end of this year if he's your guy. I know what? I think that that's true. but I think that those that will say you aren't going to know are going to point to the fact that the offensive line is a train wreck. Look, you know one of the things I do think we're discovering a little bit through two games? I think they're weapons, like they're not totally void of any weapons. Terry McLaurin's a weapon.

I think McKissett and Gibson are going to be good enough and weapons. Sims Jr. is a weapon, so I don't think that the argument on skill position players is going to hold much weight by the time we get to the end of the year because I think they actually do have a few weapons. But the offensive line is a train wreck. It is really a problem. And I, you know, this is one of those things and, you know, somebody reminded me this morning on the air. They said, remember when Cooley would say about Griffin that sometimes it's not the offensive line, it's the quarterback? Well, in this case, haven't we seen that a lot of it is the offensive line. My answer was, much more so than with RG3, who was going backwards and didn't know what a

pocket looked like and was making the, you know, was calling out the wrong middle linebacker, the wrong mic backer and really didn't have a clue as to what was going on. And by the way, didn't want to play the way the coaching staff felt it was best for him to play. So there was a lot of shit going on during that. I don't see, I mean, I guess, Rivera could run out of patience or Scott Turner could run out of patience. I think, by the way, Cooley is a total aside, and I just checked it again. I'm glad that he hasn't tweeted at all. I'm glad he didn't tweet something that he would have regretted, although I don't know that he would have regretted it. I think it's you lay low and you just go to work. And they're going to give you,

they're going to give you next week. And I hope they give him 16 games. But I guess there is, at some point, they could say, you know, it would be one of those. conversations where, you know, you might say, look, he's calling out the wrong Mike linebacker. He's not given the guys a chance to truly succeed, so they got to go in another direction. If it gets to that point, that's one thing. But the physical stuff that we're seeing, I think we've got to continue to just see, you know, if he can progress. I'm with you. I'm with you. The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go around the ever.

All right, around the NFL brought to you today by My Booky. All right, winning season has returned at My Booky. Winning season means doubling your first deposit as well. If you use my promo code, Kevin D.C., that's K-EV-I-N-D-C, my bookie will double your first deposit. New players get up to $1,000 in free play designed to add more excitement to the sports you love and the games you bet. Bet with the best this NFL season for your chance to win big.

Again, my promo code is Kevin D.C. And they will double your first deposit up to $1,000. Your winning season begins today only at my bookie. Well, your winning season doesn't begin, didn't begin last week or this week with the smell test. The smell test is off to probably the worst start in many years. It finished with the worst finish in many years last year. There's plenty of time, guys. It's only week three.

It's only week two in the NFL. And college football really doesn't start until this coming weekend when the SEC and the Big 12 get into full-fledged action. You get some big-time college football. Finally, this coming Saturday, Cooley, will feel more like college football. But your lock of the week, you're going to sit here and tell me that because it was Justin Herbert instead of Tyrod Taylor, that you wouldn't have given out the Chiefs, that's fine. But I think you've got to live with it. Sorry, I think you've got to live with the pick.

We can't predict injuries on Friday. Sometimes they break your way. What if Pat Mahomes had been out? You wouldn't have taken it back. What I said to you was you live with your Friday lines. Yeah. Since you've begun the smell test, it doesn't mean that on Sunday that you would continue that bet

or you wouldn't head against that bet in some way, shape, or form. Right. So you gave up the cheese. Yeah, I thought the cheese were a lot. They, I mean, Herbert played awesome in this blog game, Kevin. I mean, I thought Herbert was absolutely. absolutely awesome in this game. Ends up 22 to 33,

311 yards, touchdown in a pick, controlled the game, managed the game. It was fun because you couldn't hear, there was no fan noise at all in Los Angeles. And so you could hear Herbert at the line of scrimmage managing this ball game.

I thought he did really good. And there were criticisms of him early, not be loud enough, not being in control enough at the line of scrimmage. I didn't see that at all. So I was really impressed by Herbert. Keenan Allen's a good player. Hunter Henry's awesome. It's just Kansas City.

Look, they're so hard to beat. They were so, so hard to beat. I thought it was interesting how well. I thought that they didn't go for it. The chargers didn't go for it on a fourth down in overtime. And I thought they had to go for it on a fourth down in overtime. It's like a fourth and two or something at midfield. And they didn't go for it.

and Tony Romo's calling the game. Fourth and one at their own 34. That's, you cannot. Best case, you're getting one more possession to win that game, not tie the game. And it's Patrick Mahomes walking out on the other side of the field. Patrick Mahomes, who had scored on the last couple possessions of the game, they did a good job shutting them down early. I know you're betting on that defense, but if anyone would watch that game,

Joey Bosa was so tired in the overtime session that he was out for more. more than half of the place. So you're betting on a defense where your best player, who played exceptionally well, is so exhausted that he's taking a knee for four of the plays. You had to go for it. Young quarterback or not, there's no chance in the world. To me, that was one of the worst calls of the day.

Anthony Lynn, not going for it there to give Patrick Mahomes the ball back. Wow. You know, I was watching that game. Obviously, the Washington game had ended. And it was a game, just so you know, I actually bet the Chargers, and I was sick that I did not put them out as a smell test pick. I should have.

As I should have put out Indy as well yesterday, because they were, they seemed like a lot. There was sharp money, though, on Casey, and there was sharp money in Minnesota. But I did end up betting the Chargers late. And so I had, but I also had them on the money line as well. In fact, I'm going to tell you right now what the price was because I had them. I took all the big underdogs yesterday on the money line, Washington included, because it's sort of a strategy that I think can work a little bit. Did I get, yes, yesterday was not a good day.

But what was it for me out there? But I will tell you this. I'm betting against the Chargers. Chargers were plus three. I was betting against Tyrod Taylor. I know you were. The Chargers were plus 320 on the money line. They were plus eight and a half.

they went off a plus eight and a half. So I got them at the plus eight and a half, which was good. It would have been really, really nice had I hit them on the money line as well. But I did not feel watching it, having something in it that they, it's so funny, I did not think that they were going to make the fourth and one. I thought that they came out a little bit tentative on that drive, and I didn't think they'd get it. I thought fourth and one, the chiefs had all the momentum,

and I think they needed to punt it and needed to pin him deep because the truth is during the course of the game, the Charger defense had played well. Now, to your point, if the context was the defense and the best player, Joey Bosa was gassed, okay, I'm with you on that. It's a fourth and one, but if you miss, it's game over right there. It's over, especially with Butker. Old Butker, he kicked two 58-yarders, you know, so I didn't feel like,

Watching it in that moment, I thought, shit, you got to punt it, and you may never see it again. I understand that. But, you know, the funny thing about that drive, they had multiple third downs that they had to convert. It wasn't like they went right down easily, right down the field. They had a fourth down that they converted. They went for a fourth down at the Chargers 46-yard line and got.

They were at a power play on a fourth and one. I mean, I'm just sitting here saying, like, on the Chargers, side of it, man. That drive wasn't as tentative as you think. It was a three and out. On second down, Herbert checked them into a run play, and they only get two yards. And then he ends up hitting Williams for six, about a yard short of the first down sticks.

And it's fourth and one. I thought he actually got a good spot on that to get to fourth and one. I thought he really, I thought caught it like one and a half, two. to me that was a no-brainer. I will say this. I'll bet you 30 out of 32 teams go for that against Kansas City. You're probably right. The difference in that game yesterday is they actually for pretty much three quarters

had really, really been very good defensively against the Chiefs. Yeah, that's terrific. But the last five possessions for the team. Or four possessions, Philgold, touchdown, field goal. field. They scored on the last four positions. The momentum was all in the Chief's offensive favor. I understand that. I understand that. How many times do you see the Chief's punt

or punt five times in a game? Not very many times. And by the way, to end it, I was watching it with my daughter. Butker made a 53-yarder, and there was a false start on Kansas City. He then makes a 58-yarder where Lynn gets a timeout

right before ball snap. And so then he kicks his third in a row over 50 yards that goes through the goalpost. another 58-yarder. Like, how good is But he's got to be the special team's player the week. Oh, my God. I mean, you know, he missed an extra point. And he hit another 58-yarder early in the game.

He hit two 58-yarders in the ballgame. He tied Nick Lowry, the longtime kicker for the Chiefs in the 80s into the 90s, a local product, a St. Albans high school graduate from the District of Columbia. Nick Lowry held the franchise record with a 58-yard field goal, and Butker tied it twice in the state. the same game. Like it's really, look, we've seen in the age of, you know, indoor stadiums and better grass and better turf and the whole thing, we've seen the 58-yard field goal become not that, you know, unusual anymore. I mean, the 59-60 yard of field goal, not as unusual. I mean, but to kick

two 58-yarders in the same game, pretty damn impressive. I'm counting it as three. I mean, well, then add the 53-yarder to it. You know what was funny about that is it was a fourth and one at the 35 before the, you know, the 53-yarder became the 58-yarder. I wonder if Andy Reid even thought for a moment about going for it. Well, if it wasn't Bucker, he would have. Yeah, if it wasn't old Butker, he would have. The Chargers, you know, defensively, there might be something there might be something there to them defensively.

I mean, we've known that, you know, Bosa and Ingram and a lot of, you know, They added Kenneth Murray Jr. Who, by the way, in just his second game as a rookie linebacker out of Oklahoma, everybody loved Murray's leadership and maturity. He's played really well in his first two games. Desmond King, I've loved him. I like him as a punt returner, too. Anyway, they added Chris Harris Jr. out of Denver,

who's a good cornerback. I said he was old, but he's played good. Linball Joseph came from Minnesota. That's a super... Lindvald Joseph is one of the best he tackles in the league. So they have some real talent on defense. They could be a very good defense. All right, let's go to last night's game, and then we'll go to the division games real quickly.

So last night's game was really spectacular. Russell Wilson is fucking unbelievable. Five touchdowns in the game, 21 of 28. You know, D.K. Metcats are legit good. But what do you make of Cam Newton's start? And I think before we get to the final play call of the game, or just the final 20 seconds, because I think Belichick actually made a mistake in the final 20 seconds. I'll get to that in the moment.

But, you know, Cam Newton was there for anybody, including his former coach, for nothing, for nothing. They didn't have to give up a fifth rounder like they had to give up for Kyle Allen. He was there available. He was injured, and there were some questions about his health. And he goes to the Patriots for nothing. And in two games, he looks like he's going to give them more than a chance to be really good again. I think there were some questions about his mental health as well. And I don't mean that like he's mentally unstable,

just his mental desire to play football. I heard that from people out of Carolina is that in the last year, he'd lost 30 pounds, that it was more about Cam and Cam's image. And, you know, it could have been just the exact right fit for Cam because it's just all football. And I thought he was good in the game. I thought that McDaniels made some mistakes

going to straight quarterback type run plays, even though he's awesome. Like a couple of those on the goal line were great. They went for two where they went back to Cam. They're third down where they're running with Cam. It's like, let him throw the ball. They have some good receivers. They have some good players.

They were making plays down the field against Seattle's defense. I thought let him throw the ball a little bit more in some of those situations. But I thought Cam was pretty good in the game. Through the one pick to Quentin Dunbar that, Dunbar made a heck of a play on. Yeah. I don't know if you saw that. Yeah, right play.

I mean, he eyed that down. Dunbar made a heck of a play. But to me, I thought Cam was pretty good in this game. And I sat there and watched this game wondering, did Ron Rivera want to sign? other than Cam won't wear his tie on the bus on away games. You know what's really interesting in watching Cam. And you saw this in New England.

He has such a nonchalance about him in the pocket. There's this, you know, stand still nonchalance, and it's like he's just expecting to be protected. And then if there is pressure, he then creates like a sense, of urgency and he's obviously able to escape it a lot. But, you know, that last drive, man, he's back there. He's just sitting in the pocket. And he's throwing dimes, you know.

And I really, let me just take you through the last 20 seconds of that game. Before you do that, talking about dimes, man, the ball that he hit Edelman downfield over Adams on a double move. Oh, my God. And Edelman, talking about Russell Wilson being underrated. Edelman might be the most underrated receiver in the league. So, you know, they get that ball back. I'm very into this game because I've got the Patriots plus four and I also have them on the money line last night.

They missed the two-point conversion at 2823. So now instead of it being 28, 25, or 3532, you know, they have to score, you know, to win the game and get a cover. So they, there was a play to Edelman. on a first intent of the Seattle 31 with 36 seconds to go. They only had one timeout left. And Edelman is knocked down by like the 13-yard line, and they chose not to call a timeout right when that play ended with about 28 seconds left somewhere around there.

I think you've got to call the time out there, because at 28 seconds, 27 seconds left, no timeouts, you're guaranteed of getting four shots from the 13-yard line. you know, into the end zone. And if you do run a play that ends up getting short, you've got a shorter amount of space in which to run up and clock it versus the 18-yard ball to Edelman down the field spread out. It took them too long to get up and spike it.

By the time they snapped the ball, they chose not to spike it, they snapped it with 12 seconds left. So I think that was a big mistake there. The Patriots would have, I think, ensured themselves more plays down there. So instead, they got three plays in 12 seconds instead of potentially four plays in more time than that. And there are also three plays that you know the ball has to be out right now. Yeah, it's got to be out right now. It's got to be out right now.

And you can't, you know, you can't scramble around, you know, to try to make a play in the red zone on a condensed field. But fast forward to the one-yard line, three seconds to go. Boy, they did not go with the run play that he had, the two run plays that he had scored on, which were, you know, not, I don't think they were, they could have been empty backfield, but it wasn't that power formation that they were in. There was no option at the end of that play

other than a power Cam Newton run. I didn't like that. I thought there should have been more options there. No, I would agree with you. I thought, I mean, like I said, I think that they got stuck with Cam a lot. I also thought, I think on the second down play where they got it down to the one yard line, it's a two-level throw. That was completed to Nick Hill Harry, right?

Right. It's got to be in the end zone. Yeah, the one where they ended up using their final timeout, yes. It has to be thrown into the end zone. And it's the right throw by Cam. His receiver's just got to be into the end zone. Gotcha. Yeah.

Yeah, because then they, I mean, but bottom line is they were at the one yard line first and goal, and that was the last play of the game. If you go back to the play I'm talking about, you got 28 seconds left at their 13. You know, it's just a much easier when you're in a shorter field situation, if you have to clock it to save time, you got a better chance of doing it there than you did in the completion to Edelman. And by the way, they didn't clock it. They weren't as sharp in getting up to the line of scrimmage and they burned too much time and they ran a play.

So they just limited their opportunities there at the end. It's funny about Belichick. He's brilliant. He's the old-time best. I'm not debating that. But there have been moments. You know, the Super Bowl was won. I mean, you know, not calling the time out to ensure that Brady got the ball back

had Seattle scored was a clock management era. I don't care how many people say it's Belichick. You're going to question him. God damn right, I'm going to question him because all those people said, well, he got the interception. Yeah, he got the interception. But what are the chances that he knew he was going to

intercept the ball? I mean, that's essentially what you're saying, is that he predicted in his own mind if he made them play hurry up instead of calling time out and saving time, that they would rush into a bad play that would be intercepted.

Okay. Now you're talking about a level beyond just great coach, you're talking about Karnak, the predictor. But anyway, let's get back to the division games. The cowboy game, man, the Falcons have now lost two shutouts. Obviously they can't stop anybody. By the way, I think the big takeaway for cowboy fans that I've talked to is their defense stinks. They're really disappointed with their defense.

Like, it's just not good enough. And they won that game with a crazy ending, down 15, scoring, missing the two-point conversion down 15. It stays at 3930. They get another one and they get this crazy onside kick that I don't know what was Atlanta doing? Were they thinking it wasn't going to go 10 yards? Were they thinking it was going to go out of bounds? Old Ben Kotweika. They were afraid. They froze. Ben Kotweak has got to coach them up better. But that onsides kick should have been recovered at five yards. And at five yards, how it even act, how it got 10, I'll never know. It just kept slowly spin. It was like the tiger.

Woods golf ball, the Nike sign rolled right over the hole. He was like, how is that going to get in? There's no way that it got 10, but to see every falcons standing there over the ball at six yards, they didn't know that they could touch it or they were afraid of the ball. I don't want it. Here's the other thing that I see in onside's kicks all the time. You're coached up in a lot of play in a lot of ways that. three of the guys on that side are essentially blocky

or four of the guys on that side are blocking and you have one or two return type guys well at some point you abort the blocking yeah at some point you've got to go get the ball that should have never happened that was egregious on weak as part to have them prepared in that situation because I don't think they knew that that was how he was going to kick the ball by the way the weird kick like lay it sideways and just kind of like

side spin it yeah was a weird was a weird kick choice anyway. That should have never, ever, ever happened. Take out that Dallas was good on offense, that Prescott I thought was excellent late in that game, that they have Cidid Lam and Amari Cooper and Gallup and Dalton Schultz was good, and Ezekiel Elliott, it's always good. Take all that out of the equation.

You don't lose that game if you're Atlanta. You just don't. Somehow Dan Quinn cannot manage a lead. Yeah, I mean, the Falcon fans won't have fired. By the way, who's Dalton Schultz? Is he their tight end guy? Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, I like Dalton Schultz, yeah. Because Blake Jarwin was hurt. That's why he played a lot? Because I'm looking right now, he had nine catches. Jesus Christ. I mean, how easy is it if you're a tight end? If you have Cooper, Lamb, and Gallup, and then also Elliot in the run game to make plays.

Here are the fifth guy that you're the fifth guy that people are going to be concerned about. He had a fumble in the game. They had three turnovers, which is why they got into the hole they got into. Elliot fumbled, too. Prescott threw for 450. CD Lamb looks great. Obviously, Cooper looks good. And defensively, you know, I don't know.

I mean, like, did Trayvon Diggs get thrown out? Did he get thrown out of that game? No, the rookie from Bama. Stefan's brother. Anyway, the Eagles, I mean, man, the Rams look like the Rams of a couple of years ago offensively, don't they? The Rams looked really, really good on the offense. I thought Goff was really consistent. I thought they had great balanced.

Henderson had 12 carries, 81 yards. Brown had like 50 yards. Woods had three. See, this is what the Washington offense should be a little bit more of, I think. Woods had three carries and Cooper Cup had two carries. So you got receivers with five carries. That's real backfield action. And that's real balance on kind of gimmicky or nuisance type plays where you keep people off balance,

make it harder to rush the quarterback, make defensive ends stay home to make sure of the edge. You've got to give Sims the ball. You've got to give McCoran the ball on some of those fly sweep things. The Rams had five plays where receivers are running the football. So their balance, Sean did a really good job, really good job with balance offensively and kept the Eagles off balance.

Once again, a couple bad picks. He's really inaccurate right now. I mean, getting Miles Sanders back was big for them. They ran the ball better. but the Eagles are in trouble. I mean, the drive, I mean, they had fought back from 21-3, had it to 21-16 because, you know, they're going for two early, per usual. I just love the going for too early as if they're absolutely convinced they're right.

And they had it going, and I mean, they're moving the ball. It's a long drive, and Wentz throws a terrible ball that gets picked in the red zone. Terrible. And that's too bad because, it looked like they finally got into some rhythm, and they were better offensively because Sanders was back. I don't think there's any doubt about that. Sanders is really good.

Like, he is something else. I mean, he followed Saquan Berkeley at Penn State. Berkeley, by the way, has a torn ACL. He's done for the year. That news broke this morning, and it's official. That's really unfortunate for the Giants. But, yeah, Phillies in trouble here. They're 0-2, and they've got a game this week against the Bengals.

but then as I mentioned on Friday, 49ers Steelers Ravens right in a row. So yeah, they're in trouble a little bit. The Giants, by the way, I'm just going to say this coolly. I like Daniel Jones. I don't care what anybody. I know he's a turnover machine. He had another fumble and another interception. There's something about him that I like.

The one thing in watching some of that game, which was on the Red Zone early, and was a game in which they fought back from down 17, nothing, and had a chance late to win the game. I don't think he runs enough. No. I think there were opportunities for Daniel Jones to use his wheels. He's got great wheels in that game yesterday, and he didn't run enough in that game. He is a turnover machine.

There's no doubt. He also can make plays. No Saquan Barclay is going to obviously crush them. Their season's over, because who do they have, Dionne Lewis back there? And Barclay was the best player on the team. But I actually, I do like Daniel Jones. I think that we're going to see him develop into a decent quarterback. What do you think?

I think he's Eli Manning. Better wheels. I don't think he's ever a top five quarterback. I think he's right in that 8 to 14 area in best case scenario. You'll find out more if he gets more weapons and as he continues to grow. But I just don't, I don't see the edge in Daniel Jones. There's no edge that I see to Joe. I'll grant you that.

I think there's talent, though. Yeah, I see it as talent, but I see it as this long-developed, followed the right routine talent. I just, I missed the edge in Jones. Okay. He almost reminds me of golf a little bit with more athleticism. I don't know. He's, I don't seem as ever better than a B-B-plus quarterback.

All right. The other games, by the way, the Titans. The Jags, if they were in the Trevor Lawrence sweepstakes, as Sam Monson from Pro Football Focus told me on the radio show last week, they better stop playing Minshu because they're going to win too many games. He had another decent game, and they were in that game and had a chance and lost on a late field goal. They're one-in-one. So the worst team, the worst projected football team in the league is one-in-one, and they can obviously move the football and score points so far this year.

The other one o'clock game that really came down to the wire, surprisingly, was Denver, Pittsburgh, where Jeff Driscoll comes in for Drew Locke, who got hurt. I don't think it's a serious injury. He may miss a couple of games, and they had the ball late against Pittsburgh down at, like, Pittsburgh's 15-yard line with a chance to take the lead down 26, 21, and Driscoll on a fourth and two got sacked for 11 yards, and that ended that one. I think Pittsburgh's defense is really good. You know, that would have been a bad loss, I think, at home against Jeff Driscoll. Aaron Rogers and Aaron Jones. Aaron Jones is not getting talked about enough as an elite back. He's so good.

He was so, I mean, he smoked us last year. I remember watching film of them last year. He was good. Aaron Jones is awesome, but Aaron Rogers, there was something I saw this week, or maybe you brought it to my attention, that they signed Jordan Love just to piss off Aaron Rogers. I didn't say that, but. Somebody said that last week. It was Trent Dilfer that said that.

That they signed Jordan Love or drafted Jordan Love just to piss off Aaron Rogers. Yeah. It might be Jordan Love in four years, but they needed the light of fire under Aaron Rogers. And obviously they have because Aaron Rogers is, he's so good. He really is. He's really good. Brady got his first win. They actually had a big lead and nearly gave it up.

He had a couple of more turnovers in the game, lost to fumble through an interception, but at least he had Mike Evans back, even though Godwin was out. Leonard Fournette, which we both sort of panned last week, 12 carries 103 yards, and Ronald Jones was like the second back to Fournette. That was interesting in that game.

And then I'm going to, going to get to Kirk here in a moment. Gronk, by the way, in that game, no receptions. So what is that? One reception in two games? Yeah, he looks slow. The Ravens cannot be stopped as a rush offense. My God, I mean, Ingram and Edwards and even Dobbins had a big run yesterday, and Jackson, obviously. It's ridiculous. Jackson had 16 carries. Yeah, for 54 yards. So as much as we want to talk about him as a guy that's going to throw the ball. And I think he can throw the ball. They're going to be good as a run offense or as an offense because he's going to consistently have 10 plus carries in a game.

Yeah. And then the 49ers had the injuries and their win, you know, they're in trouble now. Yeah, I mean, especially, I haven't, I have not seen the news on Nick Bosa yet, but that would obviously be. Orn A CEL is what I heard. I thought that's, is that official? It's not official yet, I don't think. On Bosa. I think, you know, as of now, we're still, yeah, they think it's a torn ACL. That hasn't been made officially yet. The Berkeley one has.

But if it is, devastating. Devastating, obviously. They usually don't. They usually, those on-field docs usually know right away. Mostert, you know, had a big first quarter then sprained an MCL for them. And Garoppolo got hurt in the game as well. Garoppolo's injury was like a high ankle sprain, and they didn't bring him back. They didn't need him against the Jets.

I like Nick Mullins. I know. You liked Mullins when he played a couple years ago. Yeah. But yeah, that hurt San Francisco with the injuries. The Jets are just terrible. I'm just going to tell you, like, Gays ain't making it through half the season. You've already predicted that, that Gaze is the first one to go.

Josh Allen's performance, we've got to talk about. Look, you loved him coming out. People were complaining about his accuracy, the whole thing. thing. He's a baller. Through for 4-17 and four touchdowns in the game. The big one on third down late, over the top, was huge. He has more passing yards than anybody else

in the league right now with 729. And Stefan Diggs, eight catches 153 yards and a touchdown from Josh Allen in that game. And that game was close. I mean, the dolphins were close for the second week in a row, but couldn't get it done.

And then lastly... Here's the other thing with Alan real quick. The knock on Allen is that he throws so many wild balls, right? Yeah, that he is not accurate. He's completed 70% of his passes so far this year. Wow. Okay, so, like when you say a quarterback's inaccurate, like I've said, Dwayne's inaccurate,

Dwayne's completed 56% of his passes. 70% of your passes 10 years ago was by far the most accurate quarterback in the league. Breeze has been at like 73, 74%. Russell Wilson's at 82% right now. But you're over 70% and you're going to be in the top six in accuracy. So tell me all you want to tell me that he's inaccurate, but 70% says he is.

Yeah, 100%. Lastly, it's the typical pendulum on Cousins. When he plays poorly, I hear from everybody. when he plays great, I don't hear from anybody. I mean, your boy Nick calls me up, your boy cousins is terrible. And I'm like, well, where were you last year when he beat the Saints and the playoffs and had a massive year? Oh, I don't remember that. You know, he's had two terrible games as a Viking.

Last year's game at Soldier Field against a really good defense was a really bad game. And yesterday was a legit, awful game for Kirk. It's funny. last week, I heard from some of you that said, oh, your boy can't win. Well, the defense was a sieve. They couldn't get off the field in the opening game last week against Aaron Rogers. He actually played pretty well. Yesterday was terrible.

I mean, it was awful. You know, he's obviously missing digs at this point. The only guy he likes to throw to his Thielen. They helped him. Rudolph's a good player. He does like Rudolph. They've had, their defense has been. horrific here in the first two games, which hasn't helped. But yesterday, that was really a lot on

him. And you know this. I will try to defend him. And there are many times where it's totally justifiable to defend him like last week. That loss was not on him. It was on a defense that could not get Aaron Rogers off the field. Yesterday, the defense wasn't good. But Kirk really put him in a bind. One of those three interceptions was an end of the half, Hail Mary. And one of one of them was a deflection. And one was, by the way, one was a tip pick. It was a tip pick, but the ball is a little bit behind Beasy Johnson, but you're right. It's not a pick. It's not like an egregious, you miss a little bit, but normally you get away with that miss. That's right. So you got a hell Mary and a tip pick. I mean, it isn't good. He wasn't good.

I watched some of this game. But it was painful. What's really been painful with them, and I put a lot of this on him, put a lot of it on Zimmer 2, who's super, super conservative. They have in two weeks, you know, had multiple drives start inside their own five-yard line. Yesterday in the first half, one started at the two, one started at the four, and he took another safety, which, by the way, was not a safety. Did you see that play? He fought his way out of the ice zone to the one-yard line. That was bullshit.

They weren't going to win this game anyway. But the bottom line is, the bottom line is he stunk yesterday. He did. He really did. And that team is a different team. They lost so many players defensively, and the loss of digs right now is not looking good for them. And it doesn't get easier for them. They've got the Titans, they've got the Texans, they've got the Seahawks.

They've got a lot of, I mean, they've hit rock bottom early in the season after having really the most glorious moment of his career in the postseason last year. Anyway, my other guy, Philip Rivers, he looked pretty good yesterday for the Colts who got a win that they absolutely had to have. One last thing before we go. Man, Bryson D. Shambo, not many fans on the tour. He is coolly. He's this like golf, you know, nerd. And he's, I'm sure you like him. But what he did to that course at Wingfoot has to be respected.

There wasn't one player yesterday under par except for him. He was three under. There wasn't one player in the entire field that finished under par for the four days. It was him and he was six under. He overpowered that golf course. Overpowered it. It was so dominant that winged foot. It was incredible.

I mean, I'm not. You know, I don't really like Bryson D. Chambot that much. but I do like the method of having all the irons the same length. Like, Bryson, he's got all this theory and technology that all is, he wants to swing in all his clubs the same way. Like that's what I want to do. I like that method. I just don't love him.

He's kind of a goof. Yeah, he's a bit too much for me. And he's, God, he's insufferable to watch, you know, line up to putt. I mean, the amount of time he takes. But what he did to that golf course, when no, but no other top players. in the world could do what he did. That was impressive. I mean, that field yesterday was, I mean, you saw just, you saw like seven or eight, 80 pluses. You saw really good top-notch players shooting 75, 77, 78, and he shot 67. I mean, put it this way. Dustin Johnson shot even par, which was the second

best round of the day. He started like, I think, in 35th place yesterday. finished tied for sixth. Even par moved them up to a top six finish, which was really amazing yesterday. It was a shame because all the football was going on and I didn't get to watch it like I would have had the, you know, open been on in June. And it's going to be really interesting when we get to the Masters in November on an NFL Sunday, although I think they'll play that early in the morning and try to finish it up by the time NFL kicks off. But Deshambeau, who's been a star in the sport, you know, winning a bunch of, but not, you know, winning majors won the U.S. Open with just an unbelievably overpowering performance of a golf court that no one else could overpower other than him.

So all of that math and all of that nerdiness paid off for him yesterday. I wouldn't pay that. Hey, before we go, let me give you one plug here. I watched the game with Ben Standing over Zoom. Oh, you did? And he wrote a story that went out on the athlete. Today. I haven't read this story. Well, how did you watch it with him when you were in the car coming back from Thermopolis?

We watched the entire second half of the game on Zoom. Got it. He put together a story on The Athletic today, so you can go give that a read if you want. He asked me at the end, is there anything you don't want me to write? I said, I don't think I said any. I don't work for them anymore, so I don't really care. He said that was horrendous a couple times, and that was terrible. And, like, yeah, well, it probably was.

It probably was. Ben's the best. All right. Have a good day. Thanks. Kooley will have his offensive film breakdown tomorrow. Tommy will be on the show as well. Enjoy the rest of the day or evening or early tomorrow morning. Remember, I'm on radio 6 to 9 a.m. on the team 980. Have a great day.