The Kevin Sheehan Show - Washington Ceiling Is 10-7

Episode Date: September 4, 2023

Kevin on this Labor Day and the start of the first NFL regular season week discussed a "ceiling/floor" story from CBSSports.com that has Washington's best-case 2023 record at 10-7. There was more however! The story included a best-case playoff prediction as well.Kevin talked Colorado's win at TCU, Terps' win, and more from the first full college football weekend of the year.Mickey Spagnola/DallasCowboys.com joined Kevin to talk Cowboys and NFC East in the final segment of the show. For your sports betting needs go to https://www.mybookie.ag/sportsbook/. Use code KEVINDC 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. Here's Kevin. Happy Labor Day, everybody. Although it does not feel like we are winding down from summer. A brutally hot day in the D.C. area, if you are here, you know it. And it's forecasted to be in the mid to upper 90s the rest of this week.

The hottest days of the summer this week in D.C. A cool down, however, is forecasted for the weekend. That's the good news. Low to mid-80s for Sunday's season opener at FedEx Field between Washington and Arizona. The show's presenting sponsor is Window Nation. My friends at Window Nation, they'll take good care of you. If you've been thinking about new windows, don't call anybody else until you've given Window Nation the first shot. Call them today at 866.90 Nation or go to Window.

Nation.com. Mention my name, Kevin Sheehan, and you'll get a no risk, no pressure, free estimate, 86690 Nation or windownation.com. Welcome to the first NFL regular season week of 2023. The NFL season is a great, great regular season sprint. You know, the most exciting, the most watched five months on the sports calendar, but it flies by. It starts in late summer.

before you know it, the leaves are changing, pumpkins are at front doors, and we're already halfway through it at that point. We'll be at Thanksgiving before we know it this year. The triple helping of NFL football includes Washington and Dallas. And this year, the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, we get an NFL game, the Jets and the Dolphins. The weather will turn colder in December. And this year, while the kids are hanging stockings on December 24th, it's a Sunday, 1 o'clock, 4 o'clock, and Sunday night football. Football all day on Christmas Eve this year, followed by a triple header on Christmas Day, which is a Monday. The regular season, as we know now, with 17 games, goes into January, not just the first weekend of January, but the second weekend of January,

which means we don't get playoff football until mid-January, but it will be here before we know it, so enjoy it. The NFL regular season, what a product, cannot wait for it to get started this Thursday night, this coming Thursday night, Detroit and Kansas City. One guest on the show today, Mickey Spagnola, who covers the Cowboys and has for years and has been a regular guest on not only the radio show, but this podcast. He's going to join me in the final segment of the show today.

We'll talk Cowboys. We'll talk about the trade and the reaction to the Tray Lance situation. Also, you'll hear Mickey describe the Dallas perspective on the season finale at FedEx Field last year. You know, the game that many of you believe was Sam Howell's coming out party. Mickey will describe what that game was like from Dallas's standpoint. There's been a lot of conversation about that game, just a little bit over the last many months. Anyway, a week from today, we're going to know how the opener went. Between now and then, we're going to find out who's in and who's out.

And the two names that are in particular really big are Terry McClure and Chase Young. The first update on injuries, and it's really not called an injury report. It's called a practice report. They come on Wednesday. That information comes on Wednesday. And that's what you get Wednesdays and Thursdays. You get a practice report that acts like an injury report. But it's the did not participate or limited participation or full participation.

So, you know, did not participate calf injury. You know, limited participation, ankle or full participation. We get that on Wednesdays and Thursdays. And then Friday, you get your first game status. update from the teams. And that's your, you know, players who are out, players who are doubtful, and players who are questionable. Would be great to have both of them, Young and Terry McLorn, fully healthy for what

shapes up to be as big a week one game for Washington as they've had in a while, you know, they really do need this one, as I've discussed in recent weeks, to keep the momentum of the last two months rolling along. Look, this is a long game situation, for sure. It's a long game situation. I think we all understand that, that we can now think long term about the franchise and not feel foolish doing so. It's still amazing, isn't it, to think that we are here on the verge of an NFL season without Dan Snyder owning our team. At times, you know, you almost have to pinch yourself to make sure that you're not dreaming it. But he's gone, you know, and the team and the city can now embrace the idea that winning is possible again.

You know, and even if winning takes time, the embarrassing and despicable way the team behaved will no longer be headline news every few days. He's gone. Incredible to even think about it still. And the new owners seem, from my standpoint, so far, they seem to be gentlemen that get it. You know, they understand what this meant to the city, you know, that this was a treasured, you know, a treasured team, a treasured property, a treasured institution in this town that's just been kind of in hiding for years. but you can already sense that many people have found it, you know, again, a sellout of 60-something thousand on Sunday of mostly, if not only, Washington fans expected at FedEx Field.

It should be a scene Sunday and Landover. Winning that game continues the feel good, you know, for at least another few weeks, if not longer. It's a long game situation. Understood. I'm not expecting the playoffs this year. I'm not. I think more likely than not big football changes, organizational changes come when this season ends. But I do think this team could be underrated based on what the odds makers and many of the so-called experts think. This season has a chance to be at least what the last three have been, you know, like it or not. But Ron

Rivera's three seasons here, all three of his teams were very much in the playoff hunt in December. I mean, they made it in 2020 in that weird year, but they were 500 or better in December with a chance to make the postseason as a wildcard team all three of his seasons. I don't know why this particular team can't produce a similar result. The defense should be excellent. The offensive weapons are legit upper tier in the NFL. Those two things alone should be good for better than

six and a half wins, which is the number almost everywhere, including our place, my bookie. I know I'm beating a dead horse, but they won eight last year with a bad offense. Could the offense be any worse

than it was last year? I guess it could be. You know, despite one of the worst starting quarterback situations in the league last year. Taylor Heineke produced, you know, enough magical moments in the clutch that pulled out a few games that kept him in contention. You know, some of those games should have been won earlier, but there's no guarantee that Sam Hal or even Jacoby Berset will be able to wave that magical wand on fourth down with the game on the line. I mean, remember two games last year, okay? the Colts game in Indy and the giant game in the Meadowlands.

In those two games, which could have easily been losses, Washington faced three-fourth downs with the game on the line, and they converted all three of them thanks to Taylor Heineke, and they beat the Colts and tied the Giants. I'll give him that. He was never afraid. But I like this team to be at least what they were last year, and that would mean playing meaningful games after Thanksgiving.

CBSSports.com put out today something that we did a few weeks ago. It was the ceiling floor prediction thing. What a team's ceiling or best cases, what a team's floor or worst cases. I'm on the record of saying the floor is rather high. I think seven and ten is the worst this year could be. And I'm not counting, when I say that, it's based on, you know, the injuries being comparable to the league average. If they're ravaged by injuries this year, of course less than seven wins is a possibility. But if their, you know, injury situation is normal.

I think seven and ten is the floor. And I've said before that the ceiling, the best case is 10 and seven. And of course, that's based on the quarterback play being much better than it's been in recent years. The CBS sports predictions had it exactly the same way, 10 and 7 being the ceiling, 7 and 10 being the floor. But on their ceiling prediction, the 10 and 7, they said that the ceiling includes winning a playoff game, losing in the divisional round. If that happens, it will be interesting in terms of the conversation around things like the coaching staff, et cetera. But there's so much between now and then and so much context that we really can't predict. Season opener, six days away and counting.

Six days away and counting. The Cardinals for those just checking back in, because I know many of you sort of check out after the draft. and check back in after Labor Day or on Labor Day. But for those of you who haven't been paying attention and now start to pay attention, the Cardinals are predicted to be the worst team in the league. I can't remember the last time that one specific team was so universally thought

to be so God-awful. But Jonathan Gannon's first year in the Arizona desert is not supposed to be a good one at all. And that's a big reason why winning on Sunday is so important because a loss to this team would be deflating. You know, even though, you know, the feeling would be somewhat temporary because big picture, long game, we've got new owners. All right, the first full college weekend is in the books. And what a game Saturday in Fort Worth. Much more on Dion's debut right after these messages from a few of our sources.

sponsors. I don't know how many snaps he played, but we're going to put a hot tub on the plane for him to make sure he's straight. Dion Sanders Saturday in Fort Worth talking about his two-way star Travis Hunter, who played wide receiver and corner for 129 snaps in the game. Dion is so entertaining, but don't forget, he's won everywhere he's been, and his team was ready and well-coached on Saturday. What a game to kick off the first real Saturday of college football. Colorado, a 45 to 42 winner over the national championship runner-up from a year

ago, the TCU Hornfrogs. This segment of the show brought to you by My Bookie. Come on, guys, if you're ready to bet football with the NFL season opener between Kansas City and Detroit now three days away. You can't go wrong with my bookie. The Chiefs, by the way, currently six and a half point favorites over the Lions and Thursday night's opener. The total in that game, the highest total on the NFL week one slate, 54 and a half is the total. Washington, by the way, still a seven point favorite over Arizona, with the total now down to 37 and a half. That is a rare, very rare low over under total for a game that isn't kind of an end of the season weather-influenced kind of a game. It is the lowest total by far in week one. MyBooky.a.g offers you a welcome bonus on the house

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And for a limited time, you'll also get a free chip to use in the MyBooky Online Casino. iBooky.ag promo code, Kevin D.C. Just quickly on the Chiefs Lions on Thursday night, which really could be a good game. I'm expecting a competitive game. A lot expected from the Lions this year. It's been a long time since anybody has said that. But this morning, I just happened to have had Stephen A's show first take on TV, and Shannon Sharp was on it.

I think he is a permanent. co-host on the show. But he said about the Chiefs this year, they can't win the Super Bowl without Chris Jones. Chris Jones, their standout defensive lineman who's holding out currently. Really? The Chiefs can't win the Super Bowl without Chris Jones? I mean, Chris Jones is one hell of a player. But as long as Patrick Mahomes is playing quarterback for the Chiefs, the Chiefs can win

Super Bowl, period, as Jason Wright likes to say. All right, on Dion and Colorado from Saturday, because that was the story of the weekend in sports, really. I'm going to leave the conversation about who said what about Colorado before Saturday, who the doubters are, who the receipts Dion has on are for somebody else. I don't care about any of that. If that's what they use to fire themselves up and create kind of the nobody thinks we can do anything, you know, environment, good for them, whatever works. I'm going to talk about what I watched and what it created for at least the early part of this season.

That game was off the charts thrilling and entertaining. And it was also very atypical of a season opener in that, you know, typically you've got a lot of sloppiness. in college openers, because in part, teams don't have pre-seasons in college football. And none of that was evident. None of that rustiness was evident, especially on offense. You know, offense is so based on timing and precision, and it is often slow to come. I mean, watch Ohio State offensively, and they're a game against Indiana with a new quarterback. It wouldn't surprise me if they put up 600 yards and 60 points this coming week,

but it was off timing-wise in the opener at Indiana. They scored 23 points. I don't know that they had much more than 300 yards of total offense. But that's not what you saw Saturday from both offenses, but certainly from the Colorado offense. When you consider the makeover of that team, 80 new players, players. Dion came in and completely flipped the roster. 80 new players, 50, okay, because of the portal, you now have a chance to flip a roster. I mean, these players basically have what NFL players

don't even have, which is annual free agency. You know, NFL players are free agents, but when their contract ends, not in college sports right now, not in college football or basketball, they're free agents after each season. That team. That team. team had 80 new players, 50 some odd transfers. So to do what they did in their first game, that was impressive. And it's something you've got to credit Dion and his staff for. That was a team that was very organized, very prepared. It just didn't have many hiccups during the game on offense. Their special teams weren't great. Their defense has a lot to work on. But man, offensively, which is based on timing and reps, etc. All those new players, impressive.

So that's really the first thing that I think was really noticeable was just how incredibly precise and well-timed and on both offenses were, but really the Colorado offense. And taking into consideration all of the new players, it was very impressive. Secondly, the performance by Travis Hunter, which Dion talked about as we came into this segment, was one of the best individual college football performances I've seen in a long time. I'm not exaggerating. You know, I understand. I know who he is. I know he was the number one player in America in 2022 coming out of high school, the number one recruit in America.

I know how great he is, and I know that a lot. was expected of him, that he was supposed to be great this year. But to see a player play 129 snaps on offense as a receiver where he caught 11 balls for 119 yards. And by the way, had the massive third and 16 catch in single coverage. It's just an unbelievable catch on their game-winning drive. Um, plus to have to have a lot of, have an interception on defense and have one pass, one pass completed against you the entire day. By the way, the interception stopped a TCU score. Travis Hunter became a legitimate Heisman candidate in three and a half hours on Saturday afternoon.

What an insane game he had. Again, I know how good people expected him to be. He was the top recruit in the country a year and a half ago, and he committed to Dion at Jackson State because he wanted to be an NFL corner and learn from the best. He could have gone anywhere, and then he followed Dion to Colorado. And Colorado has, you know, the most talented player on its roster that they've had since Eric Bienemy was there. I'm kidding, of course. I'm sure they've had better players. Well, look, maybe they haven't had many players better than Biener.

enemy was a great college running back for those that don't know. Great college running back. But I don't know that Colorado has ever had the top player in the country commit to them. But I don't think anybody could have predicted in his first game, Division 1, that Travis Hunter would have put on the show that he put on. Just an amazing performance. And then there was Shudur Sanders, Dionne's son, the quarterback. What was apparent from the jump is just how well he was seeing the field in that game.

That opening drive right down the field, I mean, was so impressive. And you knew right from the jump, this was not going to be, you know, a team that wasn't going to be able to score. They were going to be able to move the football. Look, TCU's defense wasn't that good last year, and they made it to the national championship game. And it's not supposed to be that good this year either. but Sanders was seeing the field, he was poised, he was patient, and he was so accurate. 38 to 47 for a school record 510 yards and four touchdowns.

I mean, the ball rarely hit the ground, and when it did, it wasn't his fault. It was him either throwing it away on purpose or the ball got dropped. He had a couple of drops in the first half. Now for those who don't know, Dion's son, Chudur, was a big-time four-star recruit, offered by the likes of Alabama and LSU and Florida and a lot of other big-time places, but he wanted to play for his father at Jackson State.

I'm not going to get into, as I said, who said what and when before the game, but Chadur's been an upper-tier talent and is an upper-tier talent for any level in college, and he more than lived up to that on Saturday. One of the things that I loved about his game on Saturday is just how completely calm he is with pressure around him. And then he throws with this high release. He's not super tall. I looked at it at B. 6-2. He looks a little bit smaller than that, but he throws with a very high release.

And he is so accurate, flawless performance by Dionne's son at quarterback. And then the other two receivers after Travis Hunter, the two South Florida transfers, Horn and Weaver, they combined for 17 catches for 235 yards. Look, I think Horn looks like an NFL receiver. Both of those guys were big-time portal guys after being very productive at South Florida, but still unbelievable debut performance. And then that running back, all right, the running back who was the Notre Dame recruits, that decommitted when Dion took the job at Colorado Edwards, 11 touches 159 yards,

four touchdowns. I thought, by the way, and Dion had said this leading up to the opener because I caught some of college football live the last couple of weeks leading up to the season. He had said all summer long that this OC that he brought with him from Kent State, Sean Lewis was doing a phenomenal job in the offseason, and he did a great job calling plays. He had TCU off balance all day long. Make no mistake. Colorado had the best offensive talent on the field Saturday. I mean, they had the best four or five players on offense on the field. I mean, that was a major difference in the game. 21-point underdogs, and they win outright in the

that was so clear early on that they were going to be in it because they had an excellent offense. Now, as far as what that means moving forward, so it's clear that they have high-level talent on offense and they are well-coached on offense, but their defense sucked. I mean, it was not a good defensive team. TCU had 541 yards. They averaged nearly seven yards per play. the only reason they didn't score more than 42 is they had two red zone interceptions

and they missed a short field goal. From late in the second quarter through the fourth quarter, they scored five touchdowns on six drives, and the only one they didn't score on was the one where Hunter had the interception at the one-yard line with TCU about to score again. That was one of the plays of the game,

along with his third and 16 catch on the game-winning drive. defensively those are the concerns I mean for Colorado especially with games against Oregon and USC before the end of the month they have games against Oregon and USC but here's the thing that I loved about this game more than anything else and I've talked about this before but my oldest son went to TCU so I was a parent of a child at TCU and we spent some time down there I love this school, love the campus, love the passion for the football team. Whenever they've played, I've rooted for them since he went to school there. So that's, you know, over the last six,

seven years or whatever it's been, you know, more than that now, actually. But I found myself at the end of that game rooting for Dion and his team. I did. You know, they provided what you could see coming from early on in that game, which was a major jolt to the early part of this college football season. And it's needed. You know, this conference reshuffling, which, you know, was still going on at the end of last week with Cal and Stanford and SMU committing to the ACC. I think it's left a bitter taste in the mouths of college sports fans,

college football and college basketball fans. But damn, Dion on Saturday and his team made everybody pay attention to football. So I loved it. It was a great game, well prepared, well coached, and at the same time, you know, a very talented group of offensive players at the skill position spots in the quarterback. But, wow, I mean, they won one game last year, Colorado did. You know, what a story. They just became, for the time being, the story in college football.

They are just three-point favorites Saturday at home against Nebraska. Hmm. Other college thoughts from the weekend, I watched Marilyn beat up on Towson in the opener. I thought Leah Tunga Viloa looked much more decisive. I loved that is decisive. led to him scoring on a 23-yard scramble for a touchdown. I think at times in the past he's held the ball too long when he could have taken off. He threw the ball 32 times in the first half.

I don't know if that was the game plan. I don't know if those were all checks because it did look like, you know, the box was kind of loaded up against Maryland trying to stop the run. So maybe he just kept checking the throws. But he was 22 of 33 in just over a half. of football for 260 yards, three touchdowns. And he had in the first half three balls flat out dropped. And those drops made the numbers look a lot less than what they should have been,

both in yards and in points, I think. But Marilyn once again has real speed in playmaking ability on both sides of the ball. This is supposed to be Lox's best team. They won eight games last year, won their second straight bowl game last year. They've got a chance to win another eight plus this year. I believe that. They get Charlotte this week at home. That is a Saturday night game on NBC, Maryland and Charlotte.

The students, I thought, showed up for the start of that game on Saturday. It was good weather. They need a nice turnout there on Saturday night as well. They are 24 and a half point favorites over Charlotte. And then a week from this coming Friday night, they get UVA in college park. Virginia's pretty bad this year. They got blown out by Tennessee. Last night's LSU Florida State game, that was a crazy game.

I thought LSU could have easily been up by 10 or more at halftime, but they weren't. They got a late field goal to take a three-point lead. and then in the second half, they were dominated. Florida State rolled up 31 in the second half of a 45 to 24, in a 45 to 24 win. You know, all as Chief Osceola was, you know, riding the horse around the field, slamming the spear into the ground.

Jordan Travis, the FSU quarterback was great. He had a few balls dropped on him as well, like Leah did. In the first half, he would have had an even bigger game. 23 of 31, 342, four touchdowns. He's in the Heisman conversation early on. FSU got a signature win because I think LSU's good. I don't know what happened to them in the second half. It's a bit of a rough night for Brian Kelly in that defense in the second half.

They just could not get off the field in the second half. FSU's got Clemson on the road, September 23rd. That will be a huge game in the ACC, but a huge. game as far as the playoff goes this year. The smell test this weekend, two and two, with Duke plus 13 against Clemson tonight pending. The losers were Iowa and the game I really loved South Alabama. That lost and was not close. They got beat 37 to 17 by Tulane.

The winners were Fresno State and Toledo. One note from that Toledo game, I wrote this down. I put it in my phone, actually, with my other notes from the weekend. Toledo lost the game, 30 to 28 at Illinois. They were plus nine, so that was a winner for me. But there was a player that if you were watching this game, which I'm assuming most of you were not, that just stood out more than any other player in the game.

You could not take your eyes off of Terence Taylor, a Toledo pass rushing outside lineback, D-end, number 56. He was an absolute beast against Illinois. On the play of the game where the Illinois quarterback hooks up with a receiver on a long bomb, it was a wing and a prayer because he is getting drilled by Taylor, who had four tackles for loss in the game and a sack and a half. And I think he had two deflections as well. That's one of these early season. I'm watching college football. I watch a lot of college football, as you know, but just a guy that I have no idea if he is on any draft board at this point or if he's ranked at the position. I looked

him up. He's a senior. I just wanted to know what year he was, so he'll be eligible. Number 56 for Toledo, it was impossible to watch that game and not notice him. He looked like an NFL pass rusher to me. All right. Let's get to some NFC East Talk, specific. specifically some Cowboys Talk next. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. This segment of the show brought to you by Window Nation. The heat is back. It is brutal here in D.C.

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86690 Nation, windownation.com, and tell them that Kevin Sheehan sent you. All right now is actually one of my favorite NFC East guests, and that is, Mickey Spagnolly. He's been covering the Cowboys for Dallas Cowboys.com and Dallas Cowboys Radio and TV for a long time. Now you can follow him on Twitter at Spags 52. Here we are in the countdown to the regular season opener. The Cowboys at the Giants on Sunday night football. Actually, the Cowboys have a very interesting start to their schedule. Giants, Jets, back to back. Giants in the Meadowlands and then the Jets at home to start the season. So, you know, in addition to kind of the normal get-together with you before a season starts to find out what you think, man, there has been some news recently.

And I want to start just with your reaction to the trade for Trey Lance. I think what everybody needs to understand that that trade going down was kind of surprising not to a lot of people around here, but also surprising to the Cowboys that it came up and it got done so fast. And look, they did this trade for an eye towards the future to maybe be able to develop Trey Lance into a backup quarterback at a very cheap. price, a fourth round pick, or maybe if he develops into something and gets an opportunity to play, maybe they flip him and exchange a fourth for maybe a second in the future or maybe

a first. So it wasn't like they traded for him with the idea that he's going to play immediately. As a matter of fact, Jerry Jones said when we got a chance to talk to him the first time after the trade, it was the next day before the preseason game. He said he's not planning on, counting on, or wishing to play Trey Lance this year. Because they understand the reason San Francisco traded him, and this kid has just not played much football since he left high school. If you think about it, he started one year in high school, his senior year, goes to North

Dakota State. and he red shirts. Then he plays the next year and has that great year where he, you know, threw for 28 touchdowns, ran for 1100 yards. But the next year was COVID, and he played one game in 2020, and then he decided in that next year, the spring, to come out in the 2021 draft.

So, you know, I think Urbanese to understand. It's not his fault that San Francisco, traded three first-round picks in a third to move from 12 to eventually get to three to draft him. And then his first two years with San Francisco, he got hurt each year, one year going into his rookie year. And then the next year he started the first game, and the second game, he suffered an ankle injury, very similar to what Dak Prescott suffered. So he loses that whole year, and then they're looking at, well, we got a win now, and we struck gold with Purdy, and we got Sam Darnold, you're going to be the third quarterback.

Well, they trade him to the Cowboys, and he's going to be the third quarterback, and they're going to see how quickly they can get him going. But Kevin, as you know, quarterbacks need snaps. They need reps, and he's thrown fewer passes. since he left high school, then Dak Prescott through his rookie year with the Cowboys. All right. But, you know, you said it was a surprise to everybody around there.

Do you would, the theory is this is a message being sent by Jerry to Dak Prescott. This needs to be the year. Okay, so tell us why. It's a bad theory. So tell us why. It's a bad theory. Because they're said on him.

They're going to sign them to an extension. They don't feel like it's a proof of their nothing season for DAC just because of what happened last year. And he was short-handed last year with a receiving court. Not a lot of people remember this, but he started the season last year with C.D. Lamb, Noah Brown, and undrafted rookie free agent, Dennis Houston is his top three wide receivers. That might cause a problem for any quarterback, by the way. Noah Brown was no more than a seventh round pick. And then when Michael Gallup got back, Michael Gallup was ready to play.

So they were short, a receiver or two all season long, and it showed. So this theory from afar that the Cowboys are putting pressure on DAC that this is it, you either win the Super Bowl or you're gone, is just the biggest, misconception that I've ever seen. So let's talk about DAC, because last year was the aberration year. I mean, you know, people made a big deal out of Dak Prescott and the interceptions and the turnovers, et cetera, but we really had not seen that necessarily from him before. You just gave one of the reasons for that, and that would be, you know, they had inexperience

at wide receiver, certainly to start the year. What are you expecting from him in the offense this year? Well, from the offense, I'm expecting at least what they did last year. I mean, here's what another thing everybody forgets. When Dak came back from the injury last year and the next 10 games until they played Washington in the final game, they average 35 points a game, despite. the interception. So this offense was clicking.

And so when people ask me, what am I expecting from the offense this year? It's like, well, anything less means you didn't improve. Can you at least stay the same? Because they did

at the end, and if you take away, you know, the first game of the year, when they only scored what, three points in the opener against Tampa Bay, and then six against Washington in the season finale. You know, they were averaging over 30 points a game. So this was a pretty high-profile offense, with the exception of two regular season games.

And two of the games that they lost last year, both in overtime, they did score 28 against Green Bay, and they did score 34 against Jacksonville. And they got beat in overtime in both games. So it wasn't like the offense was a problem at some point, the defense was a problem too. So when people ask me about this season, it's like, can the defense take the next step? Can they take the next step where this team doesn't have to score 30 points a game to be able to win? By the way, that season finale, and we haven't talked since the season finale here in Washington,

but for us, that was the game in which Sam Hal got an opportunity to start, and he played pretty well, and Washington won the game. very easily. Now, I have described that game as follows. It was meaningless for Washington. There were, you know, subs in the game. He didn't have a full complement of players. And even though technically the game was a game where Dallas had a chance, because Philadelphia was playing the Giants simultaneously, to win the division. But Philadelphia was a heavy favorite over a giant team that had nothing to play for. They had already clinched their seed going in. And By the way, they got a lead early.

I thought I saw a Dallas team in that finale that almost looked disinterested, and I've described it that way. How did you describe them that particular day? Yeah, I think you were pretty accurate because even though they said the right things, I don't know that they were doing the right things leading up into the game during the week. and if you look at the difference between that game there and the first round of the playoffs on the road at Tampa Bay when they just wiped out Tampa Bay and Tom Brady, right? Yeah.

Ended up 30, 31, 14, I think it was. 14, and had they made their four extra points, it would have been 35 14, right? Right. Yeah. Which, by the way, cost Brett Maher probably a three-year contract averaging, you know, for $10 million, because the regular season he had was phenomenal, where he made 90% of his field goals, 9 of 11 from 50 plus yards. If they hadn't played in that playoff game, he'd be a rich man today.

And then unfortunately, right now today, he's looking for a new job because Denver released him to sign Will Lutz after New Orleans moved on from their veteran kicker for a rookie free agent. Who's the kicker in Dallas? It's Brandon Aubrey. And it's an amazing story if you got time for it. Go ahead. I have time.

The last time he played football, and it was probably as a wide receiver, it was middle school because in high school he was a star soccer player, went to Northern Order. Dame on a soccer scholarship, played four years in college. I think Notre Dame won a national championship while he was there, and then he gets drafted in the first round by the MLF Toronto team, and he played soccer for two and a half, three years, and finally figured he wasn't getting anywhere, and he took some meaningless death job at a financial company, got bored, and he was watching. a football game one day with his wife on TV, and she goes, you know, you should be able to kick a

football. And so he went out, fought a football, started kicking, and then got a kicking coach, and the next thing he knows he gets hired, gets drafted by the Birmingham team of the U.S.fL and makes the team in kicks two years there, and then the Cowboys signed him brought in a raw rookie at 28 years old. Wow. Is he American? I mean, you said he went to another day, but is he American? Yeah, he grew up here in Plano, Texas, right down the road from Frisco.

Yeah. Brandon. It's kind of a neat story. Now he's got to complete it, right? He did enough to make the team. Now we'll see what happens because I'm sure in soccer, he wouldn't play in soccer and kicking the ball before 90,000 people. Right.

All right. Let's talk about the team. team. Offensively, you know, no more Zeke. It's Pollard on the franchise tag. I am curious to know what Deuce Vaughn's looked like in the preseason, the kid from Kansas State. But offensively, what kind of team do they have going into this year? Will it be, you know, will it be from a yardage in a scoring standpoint in the regular season comparable? Well, I think it needs to be. I think one of the two things that'll help them out immensely is the fact that they traded for Brandon Cooks.

So you put Lamb, Cooks, and Michael Gallup looks like the Michael Gallup of old, after, you know, back to before he tore his ACL and just wasn't the same receiver last year coming back. But he looks the same. So if there's a weakness on this team offensively, then it's at the backup spot. It's like, okay, who's replaced in Zique? Who's going to score the 12 touchdowns he scored to compliment what Tony Pollard did? That was a full-time starter because I don't know that Tony Pollard, and I could be wrong on this, because he's never done it before, is the guy that's going to carry the ball 25 times a game.

I think if you do that, you might get diminishing returns from the speed factor. I think that shocks defenses. So at this point, they're going with Rico Doddle, former rookie free agent from a couple years ago that had some injury issues the last two years as the backup. And then you mentioned Deuce Vaughn. And you know what? He made this team in the preseason games by what he did. It was rather shocking to watch this guy, no taller than me, run for the yards he did, the two touchdowns he did.

It's almost like he's dismissing the fact that he's only 5'5. It's rather amazing so far. So it's like a three-headed monster taking on the running back position. the offensive lines back intact. Tyron Smith is healthy. Taryn Steele got back successfully from his torn ACL, the beginning of December. And the offensive line looks pretty stout as long as they stay healthy because the backups at this point are less than what you want for sure to start. Kellen Moore's gone.

Brian Schottenheimer in. What does that mean? You know, it's Mike McCarthy in. Brian Schottnerhiver is basically helping Mike McCarthy. So it's Mike McCarthy kind of adding his wrinkles to the offense, being the play caller. And then Brian Schottenheimer is basically his right-hand man, do the kind of dirty work during the week, meetings, things like that. And then handing off to McCarthy call and play. And, you know, I think for one or two years in Green Bay, he was pretty good at doing that.

But he did have Brett Farr and Aaron Rogers playing for him. So that would have been hard to kind of screw up. So we'll see how that transition takes place because, again, you know, there was nothing wrong with this offense last year other than the turnovers. And it was a team that overcame DAC missing five games, and they went four and one. Right, with Cooper Rush. Yep.

All right. Defensively, this was, by almost every measure, you know, a top five-ish defense last year. Will it be better this year? And how's Maisie Smith, the kid from Michigan, that they drafted in the first round looked? So we'll start with him. I think he's gotten off to somewhat of a slow start. And I mean that in a couple ways because he was having problems. on the snap count, like getting off the ball.

Once he does, he can hold down the middle. But if he slow off the snap, his reaction time, he gets turned, and then no matter how strong you are, you get turned in this league on the defensive front and your history. So I still think he's a work in progress, but the concept of him getting in the middle, clogging things up, I think it will take place. I just don't know immediately how many plays he will make.

But if the run defense improves, then they will be a much better defense, but the run defense has to improve. By trading for Stefan Gilmore, that took care of the problem that they might have had at the cornerback spot. And so this is the third year in Quinn's, in Quin's. defense, and basically nine of the 11 starters from last year are back. So they're looking to make a big jump, but they've got to make a jump stopping the run, because last year, in 11 of 17 games, they at least gave up 134 yards rushing.

And there was a couple games they gave up more than 190 yards rushing, including the loss to Green Bay when it was 200 yards rushing. So the run defense has to improve if this defense does improve because, you know, let's face it, with the number of turnovers, takeaways they had last year. 33, they led the league for the second year in a row. Teams didn't want to throw the ball against them. They didn't want to face that pass rush, but they ended up running, and they ran pretty well against the Cowboys to keep that pass rush somewhat off balance.

Parsons look like to you, a legitimate defensive MVP candidate? Well, from what I saw in training camp, this guy wrecked more practices than you'd care to talk about because no one could block him and you're sitting going, okay, the Cowboys tackled that bad, or is this what he does against the rest of the league? We just haven't seen it against his own team. He's highly motivated, and, you know, they can. still move him around. They can still play them at times as the weak side linebacker, and no one knows where he's going to line up. But he sure looks like he's ready to, if he hasn't exploded

already, to really explode this year. All right. Last one for Mickey Spagnola, who covers the Cowboys and has for years for Dallas Cowboys.com. Where do they fit in in the NFC East? Well, I would think, I mean, it's probably a better question for people that are from afar, but I think it's them in Philadelphia at this point. And I don't think that they have to take a back seat to Philadelphia since the two teams split the regular season games last year, and each team won when the other team didn't have their starting quarterback in there. And by the way, when they beat Philadelphia, they did score 40 points on that Eagle's defense. And when they lost to Philadelphia with Cooper Rush starting, it was a 2017 game with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter. So to me, they should be able to play with Philadelphia.

And I know they whipped up on San Francisco and the Cowboys got beat on them, but San Francisco didn't have a quarterback in that NFC title game. Any thoughts on Washington from Dallas? You know, from what I've seen some of the preseason games, I think that they are greatly improved. And now if they can protect the quarterback much better and the defense takes the next step, I think that they will be challenging this year along with the Giants who I think are improved also. Thanks for doing this as always. we don't play until Thanksgiving.

It seems like now this Thanksgiving thing is almost in every... That seems amazing, right? How a schedule comes out like that within your division? Yeah, I had one of my friends who's a diehard Cowboys fan say to me the other day. He said that I used to love when we played you guys on Thanksgiving. Now I want to play somebody else on Thanksgiving. And by the way, I kind of feel the same way. Like, it used to be a great thing to be on Thanksgiving, playing the kids.

Cowboys, I mean, there's so many memorable games, obviously. Oh, the Clint Longley games, one of the most memorable Thanksgiving Day games of all time. But it just seems like it just happened so much over the last decade. Yeah, no, you're exactly right. And, Kevin, I'll tell you one quick short story. Sure. We were at a place. It was before the Cowboys were playing Washington.

We were in Georgetown at some place. having a drink, and some guy kind of chatted us up. He found out what me and my buddy do. And Eddie, Eddie goes, well, I'll tell you what. You know that Clint Longley game? He ruined my Thanksgiving. I'm still sick about it. And this had to be like 2000, right?

That was 20-some years ago, and he was still sick about that loss on Thanksgiving. Well, I'll tell you this real quickly, because it's an annual tradition on my show. Scott Van Pelt, who's been. from ESPN, who's been one of my best friends for 35 plus years. He tells the story. It's a traditional thing before Thanksgiving to talk about how his grandfather nearly died when Clint Longley through the touchdown passes. He had a heart attack.

Scott was a little kid. They were at Grandpa and Grandma's house for Thanksgiving. And Grandpa, when Longley threw the last touchdown pass, Pastor Drew Pearson keeled over in the chair. Now, he survived, thankfully. But, yeah, it's an annual tradition for him to come on the show and tell how Clint Longley almost killed grandpa back in the 70s. And that's like, and that's what's that's 50 seasons ago, right? Well, yeah, it's coming up on it.

It was 74. Yep, it was the, exactly, 49 years ago. Yeah. All right. Well, we'll talk hopefully before Thanksgiving. Thanks so much for doing this as always. Sounds good, Kevin. I always enjoyed visiting with you. Take care.

All right, that's it for the day. Enjoy the rest of your Labor Day. Tomorrow, Tommy is back. Looking forward to that. And the rest of this week is we build towards the opener on Sunday. On the Cowboys' next series came the turning point of the game. Roger Stobach was having one of his poorest passing days in the NFL, and he couldn't find an open receiver and ran.

Stobach gained the first down, but was not woozy, and this proved to be the turning point of the day, for into the fray came an untried and unknown rookie quarterback named Clint Longley. Thus was realized the situation that was brought up before the game when Redskin defensive tackle, Diren Talbert number 72, said, one of our goals is to knock Stobok out, because all they've got left is that rookie longley.

In words were ever to haunt a man, please did.