The Kevin Sheehan Show - WASH-CINCY Recap

Episode Date: August 21, 2021

Kevin late tonight with his recap of Washington's 17-13 preseason win over the Bengals. What he liked, what he didn't like, and more from the game.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it, but you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Sheehan Show is Kevin. Good evening, good morning, good day. Whenever you are listening to this special edition of the podcast following Washington 17-13 win over Cincinnati in preseason game number two, I'm going to give you a brief recap, tell you what I liked, what I didn't like a few other observations from the game.

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that I know is reliable, you won't find a better place to play than my bookie. Bet anything, anytime anywhere with my bookie. All right, 1713, the final score. Washington wins preseason game number two. They've got one more of these left. It comes next Saturday at FedEx Field against the Ravens. and then we are in countdown mode until the regular season, which comes September 12th against the Chargers at FedEx Field.

It's nice, isn't it, that this isn't the halfway mark of the preseason? We are two-thirds of the way through the pre-season. One left, and then we get to real football after next Saturday night. Now, I'm going to start this post-game recap with a list of things that I liked, and I'm going to start by saying, I really liked a lot of individual performances. And that's really what you can do here, as well as we can do it without knowing responsibilities

and what coaches were trying to do and what they were trying to learn. All we can do watching it on television is to really just evaluate the individual performance of these players. Can't really say a ton about the competition they were facing or what impact any real game planning would have had. But I thought both sides of the ball produce some really good performances. Despite the lack of scoring by the offense, I thought there were a ton of very encouraging performances,

individual performances, by players on offense and defense. I'm going to start with the players on offense that I was impressed by tonight. I'm going to start with Taylor Heineke. You know, he's got really, really good natural athletic feel in the pocket. And it leads often to him making plays, making big plays as a runner. You know, he's quick, he's deceptively fast. He just plays very athletically for the position. He's very good at escaping pressure, has really good athletic feel,

and, you know, moves and ducks and escapes, and just has that. ability not to get sacked even when there was pressure and there was some pressure tonight. You know, he's the best they have at escaping pressure. It's the number one thing that allows him to get the results on a football field and he knows it. You know, he's very good, maybe too quick at times at getting to the checkdown, but I like how decisive he is as a checkdown thrower. By the way, sometimes the checkdown is just him running. I think based on what we saw last year and a little bit in the preseason so far this year,

the rest of his game is average at best. It's his mobility and it's his feel for extending plays at a high level that is his number one weapon and makes him unique among the three quarterbacks, although the other two can move as well. and they can avoid pressure and they can extend plays, but this is really what he does better than anybody else. But the rest of his game is average. His arm strength is just okay.

His accuracy is inconsistent. He throws a very catchable ball when it's on target, but he looks like a guy, you know, if he were to ever have a chance to play as a starter for, say, a season, you know, he does look like a guy that's going to turn the ball over a little bit. You know, he lost that fumble as he moved up in the pocket, didn't protect the ball. He threw a ball in the red zone at the end of the first half that was nearly picked. Actually, they called it in interception and then overturned it with, you know, with replay in the final two minutes.

But then again, he also should have had a touchdown pass. Cam Sims shouldn't have let that ball move as he went to the ground. that was a well-thrown ball. You know, I thought Heineke showed what he showed last year in the five quarters he played. You know, he's a baller when he's out there. Is he an NFL starter? I have no idea, really. I don't.

Everybody else with much more expertise than all of us have have said no previously. I do think, though, he is the number two quarterback on this team. And that Allen, for now, I don't think he. he's going to catch him for that. Now, I don't think it means Alan will get cut, because I actually thought Kyle Allen looked okay when he got his first opportunity of the preseason, first opportunity since, you know, October, right?

Late October of last year. I don't think that they'll cut Allen. I know how much Rivera and Scott Turner trust him and like him, but there are a lot of position groups here where I think a lot of position coaches and coordinators, are going to be really rattling Rivera for an extra guy. I think Allen makes the team, but I think Heineke is the clear cut number two at this point.

I was impressed with Taylor Heineke tonight. Again, as an individual evaluation, I don't know how much of the time he was out there against Cincinnati starters versus Cincinnati twos or Cincinnati threes in the second half. But, you know, he does, have natural ability. And he's got a real weapon in his ability to extend plays

and really use that mobility and that speed and that quickness to move the sticks with his legs. He really does. Jared Patterson was the star of preseason game number two. I said last week that he was a lock after watching him for the first series last week. So I don't really need to say it again this week, but I will. He's a lock to make the roster. I mean, it's over.

He's on this team. Ron Rivera said after the game, they have a role in mind for him. Again, you know, how much of this was against Cincinnati's ones versus twos and threes? Who cares, really? I mean, this is a guy that's produced big time in college, and you can see why. He's got great vision. He's got quick feet, super quick feet. He makes people miss.

He plays very low with that low center of gravity. I mean, look, Rivera's already, you know, compared him to Darren Sprouls. He did it last night as a runner, pass receiver, kickoff returner. He had a 37-yard kickoff return. He had 133 all-purpose yards. He's not only going to make this team, he's going to contribute to this team this year. I thought Antonio Gibson looked really good. They got him a ton of touches, you know, in this game, and I thought he looked really good.

He's gotten a lot of touches in both games so far, maybe too many. I mean, he's your starting back. He got seven carries for 28 yards. He caught a couple of passes for 19 yards. I just love him as a weapon. I love him in space as a pass catcher. That screen where he made the guy miss right there when he caught it. He's powerful too.

There was an interesting development with him tonight. I think they used games. Gibson in short yardage. Instead of Barber in the first half. Last week they used Barber. Barbara was the short yardage back last year. They used Gibson on a third and one that he made, and then a fourth in inches that he didn't make.

You know, Rivera said earlier this week that Gibson can be in every down back. Maybe Patterson making the team means Barbara won't. I don't know. Maybe they were giving us something to think about there with Barbara not being in there on the two short-yardage situations in the first half. I like Gibson a lot. I thought the receivers that were in there tonight played well. Diami Brown stood out. Logan Thomas stood out again.

AGG really came through tonight and made some big plays. I liked all of their past receivers tonight. Two bad Cam Sims let that touchdown pass from Heineke roll around a little bit as he was making his way to the ground, which meant it was incomplete. but he's a big target. That was a great throw by Heineke. On the things that I liked list, Dustin Hopkins, three for three, none of them were long,

31, 31, and 34 yards. He had a short kickoff that may have been intentional. Sometimes in the preseason, the coaches want to see guys on teams covering kicks. We know what Hopkins can do on kickoffs, but there was pressure on him tonight. I think there was. Now, he didn't have a lengthy kick.

they were all chip shots and he went three for three. You know, on those chip shots could have been a disaster had he missed one of them. But Rivera, you know, seemed confident in talking about him after the game, saying, as he said last week, that it was the operation that he had to get used to, the new snapper, et cetera, and Hopkins was three for three. So good for him. We don't have to talk about him really this week at all. On the list of things that I like, let's move it over to the deep.

defense. I thought a lot of players up front all night long played well, including some guys in the second half, but I'll start with Duran Payne. He is such a load to handle. I don't even know what his stats were. I don't know how many tackles he had. I don't know how long he played. But my God, he's talented. If he can be consistent and be the beast that he has the ability to be on every down lookout. I mean, at some point, if he puts it all together, you know, I'm not saying he's Chase Young upside, but he is a top five to seven talent at the position in the league. The defense in the first half, you know, they only allowed 55 total yards, and the run

defense was great, and they were swarming. Everybody up front all night long, I thought, you know, until maybe the, you know, parts of the second half. Everybody up front was disruptive. I thought sweat looked good too when he was in there. You know, the secondary, I thought, played well. The corners, there was no Jackson tonight, no Fuller tonight. And I thought St. Juist, you know, aka Charles Tillman, as he was referred to by the head coach, I thought he stood out in particular. You can see the length, you can see the ability to really cover. And, you know, it's his size and it's his long arms. He played that one deep ball very well.

The kid McTire, number 35, played well. I thought the safeties, you know, Landing Collins in particular stood out, had that big hit on that little boot throw. He looks, you know, healthy and ready. Cam Curl was in the box early. It's really hard to ask much more of the defense in the first half. Other than, I guess, the interception that Jimmy Morland should have had,

instead of just knocking the ball down. You know, coming out of JMU, all we heard was Jimmy Morland has a nose for the ball. He anticipates well. He's always around it. And we've seen that, you know, at times. I thought that should have been a pick. I thought he could have picked that and probably had a big return off of it. What else on the list of things that I liked?

I thought Carter had a good kickoff return. I thought the overall, here's one thing that I noticed. and it's the second straight week I've noticed it. I think it's a good sign. These games are totally meaningless. Yet, I think this team has played with great enthusiasm, with excitement. I think the coaching staff is setting a tone here,

and they've got players that are helping them set that tone. Chase Young in particular, you know, keeps things lively. You know, it's a game of energy and passion, and they've got a ton of guys that have a lot of it. And I think that, you know, it may not be a huge challenge for the coaches to get them pumped up and excited. But I've seen sort of a readiness and, you know, an enthusiasm in the first two preseason games that I think is just encouraging. Anyway, I don't think I missed anything. I probably did, but that's the list of things from tonight's game that I liked.

Again, I look, you know, Fitzpatrick's the starting quarterback, and I'm going to get to him here in a moment. And Taylor Heineke, they went out and tried to find a longer-term answer, so they weren't sure and probably didn't believe that Taylor Heineke could be a long-term answer. And I'm not about to sit here and tell you that he is. I don't think he probably is. You know, for one, he clearly seems to be vulnerable to injury because he's had a bunch of them in just the few opportunities that he's had. But he does one thing at a very high level. And you really can't debate this. He is mobile and he has a knack because of his athletic feel and vision to escape pressure and to make a play. You know, often we saw

tonight it was with his legs as a runner. You know, tonight he ended up rushing four times. for 26 yards. We saw some of that in the short opportunities he had at the end of last year. But he also keeps his eyes down the field. Now, he's not always accurate when he escapes and makes a throw. But he has something that you can't teach. There's no doubt about it. Is the rest of the game that he has good enough? It's very average to me. As I said, arm strength, accuracy, inconsistent. We'd have to see much more of him to see how quickly he processes, how quickly he anticipates whether he throws guys open or whether he needs to wait to see guys open, you know, how well he reads a defense. I mean, the one game against Tampa was really good,

but he does one thing at a super high level, and that is he's very good at extending plays, escaping pressure and making plays. He's exceptional at it, and you saw it a lot tonight. You also saw a couple of rough plays, you know, the fumble, the pick that wasn't, but it was not a good throw. A couple of throws were inaccurate, but overall, I thought, you know, he was pretty good, and Jared Patterson clearly, clearly the star of tonight's game. All right, the list of things that I didn't like from the game right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, a list of the things that I didn't like. This list isn't as long as the list of things that I actually liked.

And I'm sure the coaches will hammer the film and find some guys that didn't really give them what they wanted. But here's what stood out to me. I'm going to start with the starting quarterback, Ryan Fitzpatrick. He wasn't great. You know, he was inaccurate. He missed some throws. He missed Logan Thomas on a third and sixth throw early. He threw behind Terry McClure.

on one. He had a ball nearly picked in the end zone now, you know, in the red zone, excuse me, on a ball to Humphreys. I don't know whether or not that was his fault or Humphrey's fault. It looked like it was a play against zone defense and where was Humphreys going to sit down and maybe it was just a miscommunication. I do like Ryan Fitzpatrick's ability, just like Heineke's not at the same level, but he's able to extend plays inside and outside the as well. We knew that. I mean, we've watched him for 16 years. He hit that big throw to Brown, which was nice to see. I'm not concerned at all. Not at all. But in terms of just a one game preseason evaluation of him playing, what, four series, he certainly wasn't as sharp as he

was last week in fewer plays. He just seemed a bit off tonight. But I'm not concerned. I can't wait to see Ryan Fitzpatrick early in the season. And I'm hopeful that he can play at the level that he played at last year. You're going to see, though, I mean, I think we all understand this. There are going to be some games where Ryan Fitzpatrick is walking off the field, and he was 24 of 34 for 317 yards, three touchdowns, no picks, and Washington wins the game. And then there's going to be another game.

where he throws for $2.90, but has a fumble in two picks, including a backbreaker soul-crushing pick at the end of a game to cost him a game. I think that's what you're going to get. That's what you've gotten from him for 16 years when he's played. He is an upgrade at the position from what they've had recently. But we'll see if he can continue the trend that he is in the midst of, which is the last two years, of being more consistent, and not making as many bad plays.

He's got a good supporting cast around him this year, that's for sure. On the list of things that I didn't like, I thought the pass protection wasn't great early. You know, a four-man rush got home and sacked fits early in the game. He was pressured quickly one or two other times, escaped one of them. Heineke made some of the plays with his legs that I was talking about, in part because there was quick pressure. I'm not going to sit here and tell you exactly who was at fault for any of this,

because I thought they ran the ball pretty well. And so there must have been some decent blocking up front. It did look like Leno got beat at least on one of the quick pressures, but I thought just the pass protection wasn't great early. I thought Stephen Sims, Jr. didn't do himself much good tonight. He dropped a third down pass from Allen. heard footsteps and did not pull in a perfect throat from Kyle Allen late. And he didn't do anything in the return game.

I think he had one punt return for, you know, no, he had one kickoff return, excuse me, for 16 yards. And that was it there. I did not like the penalty call against Derek Forrest on that goal line play that resulted in the fumble that Washington recovered. They called unnecessary roughness. I thought he turned his head away from head to helmet to helmet. I just didn't think that was a penalty, in my opinion, and it cost them a turnover there, and the next play was a quarterback sneak for a touchdown for Cincinnati. That's pretty much it on the list of things that I didn't like.

I thought, you know, for the most part, there weren't a lot of standout disappointments. I really didn't. I guess Peyton Barber, you know, had a couple of carries, you know, in the second quarter that weren't, you know, outstanding. The fourth and one miss, you know, you'd like to see Gibson pick that up. They gave up some runs in the second half, especially to that guy, Chris Evans, and then the guy Patrick. You know, they gave up some runs there with their, you know, third and fourth teamers, you know, defensively. but for the most part, I thought there was a lot more good in terms of individual evaluation than there was bad in this game.

All right, I've got a few more observations, including what Jason Wright told Kenny Albert and Joe Thaisman on the TV broadcast tonight. I'll get to those other observations from the 1713 Washington went over Cincinnati after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, a few more observations from the game, and then we will call it a night here. And we'll be back on Monday, I'm sure, with more on this game. Number one, the starters played a bunch. You know, I don't know if Rivera viewed this as like the third preseason game from the past

is the dress rehearsal game, but we saw the starters that were at least able to play play a bunch in the first quarter. I think they probably had play counts offensively and defensively, but we saw starters on the field, you know, into the second quarter of the game. Observation number two, Jemar Chase, the number five pick overall in the draft. He dropped two to three passes. I mean, they would have been big plays, and he just dropped them. That was not a good performance from the number five overall pick in the draft. Observation number three is this.

The crowd. That was sparse, let's just say. I'm not sure there was 10,000 there in Landover for this game. You know, last week in Foxborough, I think there were 50,000 plus for that Patriot preseason game against the skins. You know, and other venues have done pretty well so far with crowds. Not in Landover. Not for this one. Look, this team's going to have to prove it to a large percentage of, you know,

you know, what I would call used to be fans. They're going to have to prove it, and they're going to have to prove it by, you know, over a period of time of winning, more importantly than anything else, but winning with some level of class and the behavior overall from the franchise has to change. You know, we're living in this bubble, you know,

sports talk radio and sports podcasts and bloggers and beat reporters and Twitter. You know, I had a credible person who was at the game tonight, very credible. Tell me that he didn't think that there was 10,000 people in the stadium. And also mentioned to me, and I think I mentioned this a few weeks ago, that for that practice where they claimed they had 20,000, he didn't think there was 5,000 for that. There were sections on the lower level that you could have had. But look, they're going to have to earn it.

And it's the preseason. And it rained all day, and it's the Bengals. And it's a Friday night, and we know what traffic is around here. so there are a lot of things that played into it. But I've mentioned this before. I do have this sense that we're living right now as an interested group of people in a bit of a bubble. And we'll find out when we get to the opener against the Chargers. And I would imagine that they're going to have a decent crowd for that game.

And then another decent crowd for the giant game. There's some optimism. There's some excitement much more than there was at the end of 2019. when you were lucky to get 10,000 people to a game, and most of them were the opponent's fans. But for a first opportunity to see this team live in the stadium, and again, it's the preseason, that was some of the pictures at kickoff, and you could see it on TV.

There weren't, my guy told me that he didn't think that there were any more than maybe 100 people in total in the club section. in the club level. And there was nobody up top. So anyway, whatever. They're going to have to earn it. They're going to have to win. They're going to have to behave. And it'll take some time to get the used-to-be fans back on board, you know, if they ever do. The last thing that I wanted to say is Jason Wright stepped into the booth with Kenny Albert and Joe Thaisman during the game. And I thought it was interesting. He talked about two things specifically that I wrote down. First of all, he was talking about the business goals.

You know, he has the business of the franchise under his responsibility umbrella. He does not have anything to do with football. And I've said to Tommy and I've said to you guys on this podcast that he's trying to create a business that's losing resilient, right? That was a term that was described to me a month and a half, two months ago, about what he is attempting to do out there. And he basically said as much. Here was his near direct quote.

It's probably a paraphrase. I just wrote it down real quickly when he said it. He said, we need to create an experience where fans come to a game. Even if it's a crappy game on a crappy day, fans will leave saying they had a great time. They had a great time with their families. they had a great time with their business partners. They had a great time regardless of what kind of day it was. See, that's his responsibility.

His responsibility is to appeal through eventually a new stadium, right? But a much better current stadium experience, he has to appeal to people and they have to want to come, want to stay, want to spend, even if the product on the field isn't a good one. And I think it's fascinating in this day and age that the business people in sports are thinking this way, that they have to build their businesses without worrying about the results on the field. To me, it's all about winning with this organization. But I know that there are organizations in the NFL, Miami's one of them, that their investment in Formula One,

their partnership with Formula One at Hard Rock Stadium, a lot of the things they've done with that stadium, that they're very successful right now off the field as a business, despite the fact that they haven't been a good team. Winning, you know, isn't his problem. Creating an experience where the final result of the game doesn't impact the experience, that's his responsibility.

Let me say that again. Winning on the field is not his problem. His responsibility is to create an experience where whatever happens on the field doesn't impact the experience negatively. Man, that's a challenge. Then on the name and the brand and the challenge of creating, you know, the new name and the new brand, he told Joe, he said, look, you just can't pick a name out of the hat and then, up in court, you know, a year down the road for trademark issues. He said, you just can't pick a name out of the hat and say, this is it, and then find out that it means something that you didn't know it meant. And this is what they're taking their time and making sure all T's are crossed, all eyes are dotted. They have their name. They have their number one, you know, name. But they have to make

sure that they're not in court and they have to make sure that it's not a name that turns out to mean something that they didn't know it meant 50 years ago or 100 years ago. So they just have to get to that point where they're totally comfortable that they're all buttoned up on the name. And I think, well, I know they have it. I know it's not city-centric. It's not Washington Football Club or Washington football team or Washington FC or FC Washington. It's going to be the Washington somethings, and we're going to get that name at some point in early 2022.

And as we talked about on the podcast yesterday or earlier today, I think, at this point, hopefully once the season starts, we don't get the teasing and the releasing of information that creates, you know, a lot of conversation. Let's focus on the games once they start playing the games. All right, that's it for tonight. I'll be back on Monday. I'm sure there will be more, but I wanted to get out a quick, you know, a rather quick recap of their win tonight over Cincinnati. Final score, I don't give a shit about the evaluation of players, and there were some good ones tonight. Taylor Heineke, Jared Patterson in particular.

I think Patterson's going to be a contributor on this team. Rivera said as much after the game. All right, have a great weekend back on Monday.