The Kevin Sheehan Show - Washington-LAC Aftermath

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Kevin with a lot more on the Commanders 27-10 victory over the Chargers yesterday. Updates to his "Game-Take" and Dan Quinn sound from today included. Kevin talked about some of the other games in the NFL yesterday and then spent the last segment of the show on Maryland's brutal loss Saturday to Washington. Jake Butt (Big Ten Network) called the game and jumped on with Kevin to discuss. For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match Want to spruce up your lawn? FastGrowingTrees.com 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. He is Kevin. Sometimes I do talk about winning time moments, and the importance of that, it's for us not like the defensive of the two minute a half, or at the end of the game, the four-minute drive. But today I'd also like to talk really how one play can set it off.

And that was Juan Martin, to me, on the force fumble, and the Marchand Fumble Recovery. I thought it energized our teams and every once in a while I see a play. And there it is. That's the one, that's something that needed to take place. Every once in a while, there's just a play that, you know, sets off the direction of how the game's going to go for the entire team.

And I thought that was the play in this game. Dan Quinn, about an hour ago, identifying the Kwan Martin forced fumble in the second quarter as the play that turned things around. Yeah, of course it did. Without it, the skins could have easily been down 13-0-0-0-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-com, heading into the late stages of the first half. The show's presenting sponsor is always,

Window Nation, 86690 Nation, Windonation.com if you need new windows. A guest on the show today in the final segment of the show today, I'm going to talk about Maryland's loss to Washington Terp fans in the final segment of the show today. And Jake Butt, who is on the call for the Big Ten Network, will be my guest. It was a brutal loss. The Terps were up 20 to nothing, heading to 5 and 0 late in the third quarter, and the Husky scored 24 unanswered to stun Maryland. A really tough one to take on Saturday.

Jake Butt, who's excellent. He's been on this show before, will be my guest. If you missed a last night's show following the game, I had my game take on that show, what I like, didn't like, et cetera. I'm going to do that again in the second segment of today's show with a couple of updates. So we will go back to yesterday,

and I'll give you my good, bad, and a few other observations from the game. I did take a look at the game, condensed version after the radio show today and even looked at some of the all 22. It's a lot easier to do that, I find, after a win versus a loss. But I'll update that in the next segment. Here in the opening segment, I'm going to play something that Dan Quinn said today about Debo Samuel, which was very, I think, spot on.

and man, has he been an edition that has worked out so far? A couple of emails to open up the show. This from Danny Z. Danny Z writes, Kevin, first time writing you, and I've never called the show, but I listen to you and a lot of others in D.C. Your nose for the unexpected over the years is one of the best parts about you. There are contrarians in every aspect of life, but most of them throw a contrarian blanket over everything.

You seem to pick your spots better than anybody. I would hazard to guess that when you call it early, like you did last week, you are hardly ever wrong. Well, that's not true. I'm not sure what you saw that made you feel so strongly that they would lose to Atlanta but beat the Chargers, but I'm all in on finding out. Or you can just tell me now what happened. happens next Monday night against the Bears.

Thank you for that, Danny Z. Yeah, I definitely don't have a super strong opinion today on their next game, like I did two weeks ago about the Falcons game and last week about the Chargers game. I certainly don't think the Bears game is a gimmy. The point spreads five at my bookie right now. I think that makes sense. I do think Washington will probably absorb much of the public action. I don't know if it'll be enough for it to be a smell test pick,

but I don't have super clarity on the Chicago game this early out. Look, for me, and I've said this many times over the years, and no, I probably get those right more than wrong, but not by a massive advantage. I've been plenty wrong on calling my shot early in the week prior to an upcoming game. But for me, most of you know this. It starts with the point spread and how I anticipate that point spread being bet. And I knew that Washington would be the public play against the Falcons in a massive overwhelming amount.

And it was. and I knew that the chargers would be the public play by an overwhelming amount on Sunday. So I definitely over the years have a sense when I see the point spread what it's going to mean to sort of how the betting will shake out. And typically that's what drives an early prediction. But I also felt like the bottom line was nobody was, nobody was going to be. going to give Atlanta a shot after losing 30 to nothing and playing a better team. And I knew Atlanta wasn't that bad. And the NFL is just so predictable or it's unpredictable, but it's predictably unpredictable when you get a scenario like that, a team getting absolutely gutted.

And then that team not being that bad, they almost always bounce back. And then in Washington's case. After losing to the team that lost 30 to nothing, people were super down and doom and gloom on our team. So I just thought it was a good spot. Not to mention, the chargers were banged up. And the week before, you know, Washington seemed to be, you know, a little bit banged up, A, and B, a little bit, you know, overconfident, I thought after the result against the Raiders, and the Raiders, as we've seen, are not a good football team. I mean, the Colts destroyed them yesterday. But no, I do not have a good clarity kind of take on the Chicago game.

But I would say this, that I do think that Chicago, the Bears, could end up being a smell test pick next Monday night. I think most of the action will be on Washington. This from Mike, Mike probably should have waited before sending this. reading this because it's all in good fun and people do this all the time. Mike sent this at 5.19 p.m. yesterday. He wrote, my optimism for this season has waned considerably and a big reason for that is the Souter film breakdowns. Steve Souter's so good. He'll be back on Wednesday to break down the film on the Chargers game. I enjoy listening to them, but I had no idea just how shitty our team was players and coaches until listening to those.

Seems like the only guys who get good grades from Steve are the guys who just didn't do anything to obviously F up the game. That's a really low bar. Let me just interject. Steve had a lot of good grades for the team after the Raiders game. But anyway, Mike continues. Right now I'm watching them get manhandled by the Chargers offensively and defensively.

They're not even in the game at present. Maybe there will be a complete reversal of fortune, like what killed the Terps yesterday, meaning on Saturday, but I'm not holding my breath. So looks like we'll beat the crappy teams on our schedule and lose to the good ones. And unfortunately, there are way more good teams than bad teams, the rest of the way. Thank you for that, Mike. Yeah, you know, look, they are, we're three and two. Okay. But let's be clear about something. The three wins have been against the one and four giants, the one and four Raiders, and a Chargers team that is three and two now and was three and one heading in, but a Chargers team that is leaking oil big time because of injuries to the offensive line.

And, you know, I heard from several of you about my post game show and said, you know, our team. team was injured heading into the game yesterday as well. Yes, acknowledged. And injuries are, you know, they're a reality. They're not an excuse. They're not a, it's not the only reason they won the game yesterday, but it was a big reason why defensively they had a major bounce back performance. Their three best defensive days have been against teams who have had offensive lines who were either bad or a combination of bad and hurting. The Chargers not only were hurting, but they hurt more during the game, losing Mackay Beckton, losing the guy Pipkin. I mean, it was turnstile, you know, with their offensive line. It was a bad situation for them

heading into the game. It got worse during the game. And it's been a bad situation for them over the last three weeks. The Chargers started 3 and O, and everybody's like, oh, look out. They might, you know, win the AFC West for the first time in whatever amount of years that the chiefs have been on the roll. Now they've lost two straight and they are injured. Injuries are really the most important thing in determining games and seasons. There's no doubt. Look, I don't, I'm not saying that they beat three bad. teams, two bad teams and one good team, but an injured team. But I do think that I'm not going to rely on that in thinking about their upcoming games because now they're a different team.

And they're a different team because Jaden Daniels is back. And Jaden Daniels started off slowly but became the special quarterback that he is starting in the third drive of that game. And as I said the post game last night, very much felt to me like Jaden's season for all intents and purposes started last night. But, yeah, I feel good about this team now. I think, like I said last night, once you saw five and you saw him play like he did last year at times in that game, and they win a game going away, really, and by the way, a compliment win, offense, defense, even a bit special teams-wise with that 40-yard kickoff return.

And Matt Gay, not missing a field goal again yesterday. He's made eight straight over the last two and a half games. But I kind of feel like we can now think about going and having ourselves a season, as Steve Zaven likes to say. This from our guy, Dr. Ed, Kevin, I took my two boys to the Skins game at SoFi yesterday. And I've got to tell you, it felt like a home game. There was Burgundy everywhere. I'd say at least 55 to 60 percent of the crowd were Skins fans loud and proud. And seeing Jaden Daniels in person, the kid is ice cold, calm, confident, totally in

control. You can just feel it if he stays healthy, we're in very good hands for a long time. No doubt about it. And yeah, talking to some people who were at the game, including people in the business here, locally sports business, they said about the same thing. And that's pretty much the case with most games at SoFi for the Chargers. Even the Rams games end up being, you know, neutral field environment-like. This from Blake, Blake writes, Kevin, I know you geek out over these situations like I do. one added wrinkle to the fourth down decision, and the fourth down that he's talking about, was the fourth and seven at the Chargers' eight-yard line at the very end of the game.

Quinn decided to go for it, and Jaden Daniels threw a touchdown pass to Debo Samuel. Blake writes, one added wrinkle to the fourth down decision is if they didn't get it, the most likely worst case would have been overtime because L.A. would have been playing for a field. goal. If Washington kicks field goal instead of going for it, L.A. then has to go for a touchdown, which means worst case, they beat you with two TDs if they recover an onside kick. Love the show. Yeah, I, you know, I'll give you that part of the game take right now. The fourth and seven at the Rams eight-yard line at the end of the game going for it. I liked the call. Sure, I think a lot of teams and in a lot of situations, because your chances of getting it aren't very good, it's fourth and seven, you're going to kick the field goal and you're going to make

them score two touchdowns to beat you. By the way, as part of that, it would require them to recover an onside kick. But I liked it because I thought even if they don't get it, they're going to take over inside their own 10-yard line, unless there's like an interception in the end zone and they get to bring it out to the 20. And it's just going to take too long with no timeouts to go down and maybe just get into field goal range because that's what they would have been trying to do down 20 to 10. If Washington hadn't converted, they would have been thinking,

let's get down there, get a quick field goal. And by the way, their kicker, Dicker has a long range capability. So they probably would have, you know, trotted them out there with 30. If they could have gotten to like the 40 at like the 22nd mark, 25 second mark, they probably would have kicked there to try to make it 20 to 13. And then they would have had to recover an on-site kick. And then with no timeout, still need a touchdown. So for me, it was if you kick the field goal, then you're going to kick off.

And yes, they need two touchdowns. But the kickoffs now are like, okay, you're going to kick it into the end zone to you know, not give them a chance at a big return, well, they're going to get the ball at the 35. And if they get the ball at the 35, you know, they could strike quickly potentially. They still have to recover an onside kick with no timeout. So, you know, right now I think onside kicks this year, one for 18 is the number through five weeks. But, yeah, I like the decision. I thought it was smart. If he'd kicked the field goal, I wouldn't have had a major problem with that either, but I thought it made sense there. I think the end of the first half

was an interesting situation for sure. That was super aggressive in a spot where it actually may have made sense to be more conservative. But I'm not knocking him for being overly aggressive, and I know why he's overly aggressive. He's got Jaden Daniels at quarterback, and he feels like they've got a chance to strike from anywhere on the field with almost any amount of time left. This from James. James writes, Kevin, am I the only one that thought the defense didn't play that well and got bailed out by Charger mistakes? Chargers completely controlled the game in terms of time of possession and hurt themselves with penalties and turnovers. They left 21 plus points on the board with turnovers and penalties.

James, I disagree. Those turnovers were not, you know, charger mistakes. They were Washington defensive forced. That hit by Juan Martin on Quentin Johnston would have separated ball from player in a lot of situations. The interception was a tipped ball by Johnny Newton and a really good catch by Sanristill on a ball that was fluttering through the air and was. was about to hit the turf. Those were two defensive forced takeaways. Look, I thought the

Chargers hurt themselves during the course of the game, especially with penalties, especially when the game started to get a little bit away from them. I thought that, you know, the changes that they were making throughout the game to their offensive line because it came in banged up, then it got more injured during the course of the game. I think they got completely flustered. There were timeouts called that they shouldn't have called because of delay a game possibilities. But no, I think this was a game in which Washington's defense did play well. The pass rush played well specifically. I had an issue with coverage, and I'll go through that when I get to my updated version of the game take.

But I thought the pass rush was exceptional. I thought they were pretty good against the run. Now, early in the game, okay, the first quarter. and a half was dominated and it felt like, uh-oh, here we go. I mean, the Chargers had 179 yards of offense, 10 points on the verge of making it more than 10 points on their third offensive drive of the game. They had run 28 offensive plays to Washington's eight offensive plays. Washington offensively had punted twice on two possessions, and it did feel like, the chargers were in control of the game and that the defense wasn't playing well.

But from the moment that Kwan Martin made that play, it became a completely different game. It was really the Kwan Martin, you know, forced fumble, followed by the Jaden Daniels' third and 16 completion to Jalen Lane. Because that was a massive play. You don't make that. It makes the turnover almost, you know, a play that wasn't significant. They needed to take advantage of that and at least move the ball field position-wise. And they were on the verge of going three and out before Jaden rifled one to Jalen Lane for the first down. But no, I think the defense, I don't think anybody played well for the first quarter and a half. And then after that, I really think everything was kind of Washington forced.

Offensively, they did a great job. And then defensively, they own the line of scrimmage, especially. in passing situations. All right, I got a lot of Kroski merit. Email tweets. People are fired up. And by the way, justifiably. So that is for sure.

This from, hold on, I got to find it. My fault. So you know what? The guy deleted the post. I read it on the air during radio and he basically sent me a tweet saying that Kroski Merritt has Chris Johnson type of speed

and I said on radio easy now, let's relax a little bit. He does not have Chris Johnson as in Tennessee Titans, Chris Johnson speed. That guy was world-class, probably the fastest running back to ever play in the NFL. I mean, he ran, and I looked it up, he ran a 4-2-40 out of college. Crosky Merritt ran 4-4-5. That's a rather hefty difference. Look, I think Crosky Merritt is plenty fast enough. He just isn't, you know, a world-class speed guy at the position. That's not,

what he is. What he is is is a lot of things. He has incredible vision. He's great with kind of lateral cuts, quick cuts, decisive cuts. He's good after contact. Nobody seems to get a good, clear shot on him.

And even if they do, he's much stronger, lower body than maybe we thought. It's his vision, his burst, his quickness you know, in sort of with that vision more than it is speed. But he's plenty fast enough at 445.

I mean, he's going to outrun a lot of guys. I mean, speed's not his problem at all. Plenty more here on Kroski Merritt. This one comes from Shrek Diesel. Shrek Diesel writes, been watching this team since Larry Brown was the number one back. and remember thinking they gave Bill number 22 on purpose, specifically because of how much his style reminds of Mike Thomas.

I don't think that's why he got 22. In fact, he was wearing a different number, wasn't he, during preseason? And then he picked 22 before the regular season began. I may be wrong about that. So that is the second Mike Thomas comparison I got today. And for those of you of not a certain age, you're not going to know who Mike Thomas was. But if you're, you know, in your 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s or older, you'll remember who Mike Thomas was. Mike Thomas was the NFL's rookie of the year, offensive rookie of the year, in 1975 for the Redskins.

And what was really unique about that is that George Allen didn't draft players. he traded all of his draft choices. And if he did draft players, he didn't play rookies. But he played Mike Thomas in 1975. And in 1975, Mike Thomas burst onto the scene as a rookie from UNLV, fifth rounder, 919 rushing yards. Now, that was a 14-game season. So anything around 1,000 was good back then.

And he won AP Offensive Rookie of the Year. 1975. And that was a big deal. And, you know, he was a guy that was stylistically, there are similarities. He was super, super vision-oriented, quick cuts, not blazing speed, but good speed. And he was versatile. He could catch passes out of the backfield in his rookie year. In addition to 919 rushing yards, he had 40, for 483 yards. Seven total touchdowns on the year in 75. He ended up playing four years in Washington, and he came upon the scene as Larry Brown's career was coming to an end because of knee injuries. And a year before Rigo got here, and Rigo really in his first few years,

was more of a fullback for George Allen than he was the lead running back. Mike Thomas actually passed away a few years ago. 2019, he was 66 years old. He had drug issues, went to the Chargers in 79, and was, you know, I think suspended a couple of times. It was cocaine, I'm pretty sure. I mean, these were, you know, the 70s, early 80s. But yeah, Mike Thomas got that comp twice today. I thought that was an interesting comp.

And I do see the similarities. This from Mark, Mark writes, Bill, with all of the lightning quick jump cuts and unearthly accelerations, reminds me of Adrian Peterson. Yeah. No, that's not the comp. Adrian Peterson, come on, man. I mean, first ballot.

but Adrian Peterson was just big, physical, strong, could outrun you, could run over you. I love everything about Kroski Merritt. The truth is, as I was thinking about this before the show started, I don't really have a comp for him. He is very much in that between the tackle's incredible vision, and he's able to find those spots. I thought yesterday the blocking was exceptionally good as well.

I'm sure I'll come up with a comp at some point. I like them. I like them a lot. And yes, I, you know, I dismissed many of you in the spring and in the early summer and during camp who said, oh, he's going to be our starter. He's going to be great. When I said, okay, it might happen, but let me give you a little history.

on seventh round running backs. Over the last 10 years, there has been one seventh round running back that has made a major contribution to a team, and that is Isaiah Pacheco in Kansas City. Well, guess what? Old Bill might be number two. He is off to a great start.

All right, when we come back, something Dan Quinn said about Debo Samuel, and I'll do a quick recap of my game take updating a couple of things in the game take as well. We'll get to that after these words from a few of our sponsors. So guys, if you're like me and you've basically been buying and wearing this same type of underwear for years, in my case, boxer briefs, same brand, same type for a long time. Well, not anymore for me.

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Now's the perfect time to plant. Use Sheehan to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. Check out the link in the show notes to support the show. Fourth and seven here, Commander is just going to go. One 14 to go. It's Daniels.

Pressure, float one for the corner. Debo, Samuel, he's got it. That's the exclamation point. Debo Samuel, with a fourth down touchdown catch to ice the game if the game wasn't iced already. His third touchdown catch of the year. This segment of the show is brought to you by, My Bookie, if you want a 50% cash bonus, That means whatever you deposit, they'll give you 50% of that amount for free into your account to wager with. Go to the Kevin Sheeonshow.com slash my bookie and use my promo code DC Reload, D-C-R-E-L-O-A-D.

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Jacksonville getting three and a half tonight is the last smell test pick of the weekend. I gave that out on Friday. That is still currently the point spread. I need this one tonight to have another winning week. A loss, and I can't push tonight at plus three and a half, a loss would make the first losing weekend of the season so far. A win, and that's six straight. winning weekends to open up the year. So Debo Samuel, how about the season Debo is having?

Fifth round pick. Eight catches, 96 yards yesterday. That is his best catch day of the season, his best yardage day of the season. He now has 30 receptions through five games, 300 yards receiving through five games, three touchdowns through five games. He also has, he also, He also has a rushing touchdown as well, four touchdowns in total on the season. He's on pace now to shatter his season best for receptions. Right now he's on a pace to catch 102 passes. His best ever was 2021 when he caught 77 passes. He's also on pace to go over 1,000 yards in receiving.

He did have a 1,405-yard season in 2021. but has not had a thousand-yard reception season since. And he is on pace to score, to catch 10 touchdown passes, which would be a career best as well. Fingers crossed, he stays healthy, but this trade working out very well, especially when you consider what they've lost at receiver. Without Debo, they'd be in some trouble. But the combination of Jaden and Debo moving forward

through the rest of this year. And hopefully getting Terry McLaren back. By the way, Quinn said, you know, more on him and Noah Brown and some of the others as we get towards the middle, towards the end of the week this week. Because Wednesday, really, of a normal Sunday week becomes Thursday this week as they play on Monday night football. But, man, Debo Samuel is performing. That is for sure.

Again, hope he stays healthy. That's been his issue. more than anything else. And he did, you know, make the injury report last week missing two practices with a heel injury. So Quinn was asked by Ben Standing today about Debo Samuel. And did they expect this, you know, career paces for receptions, touchdowns when they traded for him? Here's what Quinn said. He is one of our league's best competitors. And maybe the byproduct of him moving around so much in training camp. He was outside. He was inside. He played different spots. I think that training added to him, Ben, because now he's comfortable at all the spots.

And he's also in a different system. You know, and it was at San Francisco. And the way they featured him was excellent there and showed all the plays. And so anytime a guy goes to a new spot, there's new wrinkles and things that would happen. It would have been the same if he had been coming from D.C. to San Francisco. And so that's normal. And so finding different things that players can do, it's a big piece of it. But one thing I know, like there's a competitive edge to him, and it just reveals itself on game day. It is so much fun to see. And so I love the energy and the toughness that he brings to the team.

And, yeah, we're going to try to put him in as many spots as we can to make his impact. And he's always down for that. Quinn went right to the thing that every NFL fan knows about Debo Samuel more than anything else. And that is he is one of the true NFL badass competitors. It's actually been one of the reasons he's gotten hurt as much as he's gotten hurt, is that he plays so hard. It's so hard to tackle him. He's such a physical player.

And that's where Quinn is. went to, because Quinn is very much in that mode of still trying to develop a culture and an identity with the franchise that he was given responsibility over, especially as it relates to the style that they play. And he talks about playing hard, competitive to the last whistle. You know, he's looking for those guys. Debo was the perfect fit for Dan Quinn. The perfect fit, too, for the Cliff Kingsbury system. And I thought, you know, there were a couple of things that he said. He said, first of all, training camp, you know, he got an opportunity to play a lot of different spots.

Why? Well, because Terry was out. So he said, you know, that kind of training camp situation gave him the ability to play a lot of different spots and prepare him maybe in a way that he hasn't been prepared for. But it's also a different system. You know, it's a different system and it's also a different system. and it's also a different quarterback situation. He's never played with a quarterback like Jaden Daniels. And this was just game number three with Jaden.

And I think there are some special games to come. But in San Francisco, didn't have the quarterback really. And by the way, the system was different. He was not utilized in as many ways, I don't think, as Cliff Kingsbury is, using him. Not that Kyle Shanahan doesn't know what he's doing. Of course he does. He just does things differently. But at the end of the day, man, as Quinn said, there's a competitive edge to him and it just reveals itself on game day and it's so much fun to see. He's exactly what they want

to find more of, not only via trade, but in the draft as they continue to, you know, make an impact. on this franchise's locker room culture identity. All right. So real quickly, before I come back to my game take with a couple of updates, I did want to quickly touch on some of the other NFL games from yesterday. First of all, Philly losing for the first time to Denver, 21 to 17.

The Eagles could not score, essentially after they built a 17-3 lead. and this has been their problem. Remember last week they hung on for dear life against Tampa after Jalen Hertz went 0 for 8, 0 for 8 on his passes in the second half. After they took a 17 to 3 lead on their first possession of the third quarter, five place punt, three place punt, three place punt, three place punt, end of game, you know, ended with a Hail Mary that actually had a shot with A.J. Brown and Devante Smith both going up. together. Something's not right in Philadelphia, especially on offense. They look good defensively, but does it matter in week five? You know, last year after week four, they were two and two, and everybody was saying fire Nick Siriani. I think they'll figure it out. They certainly have the players to figure it out, but it's a new offensive coordinator, you know, and it takes

some time there. Meantime, Denver gets its first signature win, and I mentioned this guy, last week on the radio show, we do an NFL buy and sell segment on Wednesdays, sometimes Thursdays. And I said, I'm buying Nick Benito, Denver's Pass Rusher, as a guy that will soon be discussed in the category of T.J. Watt and Miles Garrett, et cetera. Nick Benito, two and a half sacks yesterday. He's got seven on the season. He is a superstar in the making. He had 13. He had 13. and a half sacks last year. Everybody knew what kind of player he was last year, but he is taking it to a new level. 6.3, 245, lean fast. This dude is legit. Denver's defense is legit. And offensively, you know, Cortland Sutton is really good. J.K. Dobbins, the guy that I

thought Washington should give a look C-2 along with Nick Chubb. Hey, they've got Bill. Turned out okay. Dobbins is having a great year in Denver and Bo Nix, man, with Sean Payton. It is working. Denver's 3 and 2, and their next two games are the Jets in London and then the Giants. Man, that AFC West with the Chiefs, Broncos, and Chargers is going to be entertaining all season long. But Philly loses for the first time this year. Jalen Hertz in the game sacked six times six. A stupid penalty, too, by Zach Bond on a late hit that kept a Denver drive going when they were up 18 to 17 and basically cost Philadelphia any legitimate amount of time to muster a final game winning drive.

The Cowboys beat the Jets 37 to 22. Look, I know you Cowboy fans want to give Dak Prescott the MVP right now. Now, he's having a hell of a season, no doubt. And he has been exceptional, and they were missing offensive linemen yesterday. They're missing C.D. Lamb. It was the Jets. Let's take a chill pill. They're still not very good defensively, even though they played better yesterday.

But again, it was the Jets. The Cowboys have two wins over the Giants and the Jets. Now they tied the Packers last Sunday night. I'll tell you what is interesting is the Cowboys. Cowboys go to Carolina this coming week. They'll be favored. Let me see what the line is right now. My bookie, I'm sure they're favored going into that game at Carolina.

Although Carolina got a win over Miami yesterday, they are a three and a half point favorite. I'll probably have Carolina on Sunday. But if they get the win, they're three, two, and one. If Washington can get a win, Washington's four and two going to Dallas the following week, Sunday 425. would kind of feel like a big Washington Dallas game. You know, we haven't had a lot of those over the years. But that one would feel pretty big. Dallas at 3-2-1 on a two-game winning streak.

And, you know, the tie before that against the Packers, Washington at 4-2 on a two-game winning streak. Washington has the short week going into that game. But that could feel a little bit like a big Washington-Dalceton. Dallas game. The Colts are impressive, man. They are four and one. They destroyed the Raiders. The Giants, by the way, didn't lose the game to the

Saints because of their defense. They lost because they turned the ball over four times in the game. Two interceptions from Jackson Dart and a lost fumble. And even the big 44 running back Scataboo had a fumble in the game. They had five turnovers

the Giants did and lost to the Saints. But I'm going to tell you right now, the Giants, as long as they stay healthy on defense. They're going to be difficult for a lot of teams, including we have a game with them later on in the season in December. Who knows what it'll look like by then, but they're a very good defensive team. The Ravens are just decimated injury-wise. You want to hear something interesting? They lost to the Texans 44 to 10 yesterday. The Ravens have now given up 41, 38, 37, and 44 points, an ungodly amount of points.

Harbaugh said he is not going to fire the defensive coordinator or. But right now at my bookie, the Ravens and the Steelers are co-favorites to win the AFC North at minus 115. Go figure. The Steelers are 3 and 1. The Ravens are 1 and 4. But they're looking at it and they're like, well, Cincinnati can't do it because they don't have Joe Burrow. Cleveland certainly can't do it.

And Baltimore still plays Pittsburgh twice this year. And maybe they'll be healthier when they play the Steelers because they don't play the Steelers until December for the first time. And then they finish in the final game of the year at Pittsburgh. But how about that? The Ravens are reeling and they're still co-favorts to win the AFC North. The craziest game of the day was Titans Cardinals. If you haven't seen the demarcato dropping the football before the end zone, what is wrong? How can you do that a week after the kid Mitchell did it in Indianapolis?

I don't understand why that still happens. It doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever that that still happens. It shouldn't. Players should be cut, find when this happens. It is the dumbest thing that happens in the. NFL and there are a lot of dumb things that happen in the NFL. But there was a wild interception by the Cardinals and then they fumbled it back and Tennessee scored. Tennessee, I did watch the final drive. Cam Ward drove him down the field for the game-winning field goal in very impressive

fashion. Man, the Cardinals have lost and they've become the first team in NFL history to lose three straight games on walk-off field goals. Forty-niners, C-R. 9ers, C-R. and to the Titans yesterday. The Bucks Seahawks may have been the best game of the year. The quarterbacks in that game both went for 80% plus completion percentage. Mayfield and Darnold, both had QBRs at 90 plus, both had passer ratings at 134 plus. Mayfield, 29 of 33, 379 yards, two touchdowns. Darnold, 28 of 34, 34, 341, and 14.

touchdowns, but he threw a pick late that led to the game-winning field goal. Two good teams, Tampa and Seattle. Washington has Seattle on the schedule. Then last night, how about the Patriots, Drake May with an insane throw to Diggs on the final game-winning drive as he was falling to the ground on a sack and he somehow shoveled it to Diggs. He played great. Their defense came up with a bunch of turnovers. Buffalo loses for the first time. And week five, the 72 dolphins are able to celebrate as no more unbeatens remain in the NFL. All right, I'll get to a quick recap and an update of my game take of yesterday's game after these words from a few of our sponsors. You shouldn't have to go out of your way to feel like yourself,

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That helps us a lot. Writing a quick one to two sentence review on Apple is a big deal for us as well. Following the podcast, that's just a hitting of the follow button or the plus button. is something that really helps us out a lot as well. All right. I did a game take last night, shortened version, got some updates to it. Let me hit you with it right now. The things that I liked, didn't like, and a few other observations.

Let me just start with this, because this was breaking news, and I talked about this in the post game last night. You know, on that final Chargers drive that ended with the Sanristil interception before Washington went on an epic, you know, 13 play 99-yard drive, Omarie and Hampton, the rookie from North Carolina, was not in the game. They went with Haskins, the Michigan running back, and then with Vidal. And I said that was probably a big deal in the game because Hampton probably gets it on first and goal and second in goal. Hampton was a load for Washington, broke some tackles in that game. Well, guess what? The reason he wasn't in the game, he was injured.

They did say they were over taping his ankle. Injured reserve today with an ankle injury, he's going to miss at least the next four games. The rookie from North Carolina, who has really come on here in the last few weeks, 128 yards against the Giants last week. He was 12 for 44 against us. along with six receptions in the game, but he had a couple of runs that were, you know, pretty decent runs, but, you know, 3.7 yards per carry.

Washington's done a decent job against the run. So that's what was going on with no, Marry and Hampton in the game. And look, no offensive linemen for the chargers, the guys they had in there, you know, were backups, and in some cases, backups to the backups, and then they were without their number one running back. in the game. Let's not forget, you know, Slater,

Khalil Mack, also Najee Harris. The Chargers have been really bitten by the injury bug here early in the season. All right, a list of things I liked, didn't like a few other observations. Jaden led the list for me on the things that I liked. And it could have been just as easy to go with Debo or to go with Kroski Merritt, of course, or to go with the two takeaways. I actually think the two takeaways were the significant moments in the game. There were others as well.

But Jaden was rusty early and then he was Jaden after that. I still can't believe and I went back and watch this. I said I would go back and watch this on the post game last night. What is Cliff

calling on the second play from scrimmage? Guy hasn't played in 23 days and you're going to call a quarterback counter. And he got absolutely lit up on that play for a two-yard loss. I don't get that at all. I mean, you got this kid coming off a knee injury wearing a brace. He throws a seven-yard pass to Debo to open up the game.

And then you're running quarterback counter. That one, I'd love to ask Cliff because I love Cliff. He's so good. But man, and you got to use Jaden in the running game. Of course, 11 on 11 football. It is a massive advantage. And trust me, Kroski Merritt is benefiting from having the quarterback, whether it was Marioada in the last two games or Jaden now.

He benefits from Jaden being involved in the run game. Remember, he opened up the season with a 10-carry 82-yard effort against the Giants. Jaden played in that game. I just, I don't get it. I don't get the quarterback counters, the quarterback powers. He's not Josh Allen. He's not Cam Newton. Look, I said this last night.

His season basically started on that third and 16. The third and 16 after the Juan Martin forced fumble was really the play of the game after Juan Martin had the play of the game. Because if they've got to punt it right back, that turnover is diminished in its significance. Third and 16, on the money, on time, went back and looked at that play. You know, they're just not like a lot of other teams. I mean, the chiefs have been like this, and the bills are like this. Third and 16 is not a screen. It's not a draw and let's punt. It is get to the sticks. Our quarterback will either fire it on time or he'll create enough time

to get it downfield or he'll run for it. Great throw. I thought it was the play that unleashed him. And then he had so many good plays. The second four scramble on that touchdown drive, the throw to Debo after avoiding pressure on that first touchdown drive. Of course, at the end of the half, the 50-yarder to McCaffrey, followed by that deep crossing route to Debo where they clocked it and then kicked the field goal at the end of the first half. had another nine-yard scramble to set up a third and one on the first drive of the second half. I think even after looking at some of the game today, my favorite throw was, I mean, look, it's hard for it not to be the McCaffrey throw.

It's just a phenomenal throw and a phenomenal catch. But there's a throw to Tay Martin number 13 on a first and 10 second half opening drive. It's the best of Jaden. You know, it's him really having a feel for everything. Seeing it, pre-snap, post-snap, post-snap, being decisive. It's a flick of the wrist. He doesn't even step into it sometimes. It's just all wrist.

Even the deep throat of McCaffrey, it's not like he had to wind up. It was all wrist, quick release, velocity, accurate, nine yards. It's now second and one. Next play was the read option keeper where he got down. I thought 90% of the day yesterday, the did. decisions to protect himself were really good ones, including, by the way, changing his shoes after the second series of the game. You know, he did have that play that Brady scolded him for, where it was a second down and nine, and he got eight, and he was still fighting for that extra

yard and got hit. He had a second and sixteen scramble for 12. That was the play he got leg whipped on and they called the 15-yard penalty. The touchdown throw to Debo was outstanding. He was inaccurate on a few throws early to lane, high to Ertz at the end of the first half, under through Debo on the defensive pass interference penalty, maybe intentionally. He probably missed a couple of things. I thought last night I said that on the play in which he slipped scrambling on the second drive before he changed his shoes.

I said that I thought he could have checked it quicker to McNichols. A little bit dicey. There is a defender out there. Although I think once he starts to move towards the line of scrimmage, if he then throws it to McNichols, McNichols has already shown he can break some tackles and make people miss. Maybe he gets it. Trying to scramble for it, I don't think he was going to get it even in a good pair of

shoes. But overall, I mean, 15 of 26 for 231, 8.9 yards per attempt, 15.4 yards per completion. He rushed for 39 yards. I gave him an A minus B plus last night. That's exactly where it was. He was outstanding in the football game. And he is the absolute most important player in this organization, probably the most important person in this organization.

They'll go as far as he. He will take them. He's got to stay healthy. If he stays healthy and plays these last, you know, 12 games from three and two on, and they don't really lose a lot more, they're going to be right there. They're going to be right there with, you know, 10, 11, chance at 10 or 11, you know, a chance at the postseason for sure. Love the tempo with him in the game, too, man.

I think they really kind of wore the chargers out. Kroski Merritt, of course. is in the, you know, game take on the list of things that were good. 28 snaps in the game for him, 28, 150 yards, two touchdowns. Not bad for 28 snaps in the game. Yes, there was a fumble too in the game, but he was outstanding. And hopefully that fumble was on him. That was not, in my opinion, an exchange issue, as Brady described.

Debo, we've already talked about him. Of course, he was on the list of good. McCaffrey, a 50-yard catch, a 40-yard kickoff return made the list. McNichols made the list with that third and 11 swing pass where he is really good after the catch and in the open field breaking tackles. Obviously, that long touchdown run against the Raiders was a series of broken tackles. The offensive line I thought was really good. Anytime you rush for 163 yards, 5.8 per carry, and your quarterback only gets sacked once. you've done a pretty good job. I thought after going back and looking at the condensed and a little bit of the All-22,

I thought the linemen that stood out the most by far was Tunsel. Tonsel is an absolute stud as a pass blocker. There were a couple of throws where Jaden had an absolute clean pocket, and I thought Tunzel was a big part of that. You know, the two takeaways were massive in the game. They're on this list and they're way up on the list, even though I'm getting to the defense sort of second. I mean, to me, it's Jaden, Kroski, Merritt, Debo, and the two takeaways. And then you go with the pass rush, five sacks. And then how about this?

13 pressures, didn't have this last night. 13 pressures, nine of them in two and a half seconds or less. They were quick pressures. They were schemed up pressures. They were player beating player pressures, and there were so many players that participated. That was the thing. Take that first quarter and a half out of it, and they did sack Herbert twice during that stretch. Herbert was 11 for 13 for 112 yards over the first quarter and a half. After that, 11 for 16 and 54 yards.

But it was so many different players defensively. Armstrong was my favorite in the game. He had two sacks. Armstrong is an excellent pass rusher. He's become a load to handle. He's also one of their better tacklers and more consistent tacklers. I thought Johnny Newton was outstanding in the game. They got pressure from pain.

They got pressure from Kinlaw. I thought Kinlaw and Payne were really good as run stoppers and as pass rushers. There was somebody else I added to this list, pass rush-wise. Yeah, Von Miller. I did mention him last night, but Von Miller, even though some of his sacks were sort of a result of some of the other pressures, he got good pass-rush pressure in the game in the, I think it was 29 snaps that he played. Jacob Martin did a good job, too, number 55 in his 35 snaps. And what else did I have here?

Oh, yeah, of course. Jordan McGee's 12 snaps. Most he's ever played in the game. He had that TFL that forced the third and goal from the three, that second down TFL. I thought he had a couple of plays. That one in particular was really good. Yeah.

Sanra still, by the way, addition to the pick, he had the off-sides on the field goal, which was a really bad play. But I thought his game, and I thought coverage-wise, Sanra still, and maybe even Latimore, were the two best. But coverage was not great again, in my opinion. Yeah, so that kind of wraps it up defensively. They were better tackling. and they got the benefit yesterday of playing the team that is a good team, but on the right day. There's no doubt. What I didn't like, I still think that the coverage is not great. I thought Sanra Stoll and Latimore were better yesterday. I think the tackling was a little bit better,

but they still got torched on those first three drives before the Kwan Martin forced fumble. And even on the last drive where the chargers took over from their own 43 yard line, and they drove 53 yards, 7 minutes and 12 seconds. That's an unbelievable amount of time for a drive that short. It was 14 plays, okay, 14 plays 53 yards, and they took 7 minutes and 12 seconds off the clock. there were some penalties, but they just kept converting third downs. And again, coverage, you know, even with the pass rush, two easy third downs to Keenan Allen, a more difficult contested third down to Quentin Johnston.

But I just still don't have faith in the coverage, but when you rush the passer the way they did, it's not going to hurt you as much. Chris Moore had a drop. I thought that that was worthy of putting on the list of things that I didn't like. And really that's it. There was some sloppiness, a delay a game, getting plays in late. You know, they'd take a time out.

The penalty on Sanra still was not a good penalty. The penalty on Tay Martin on the kickoff, not a good penalty. You know, other than that, much more good yesterday than bad. Sort of on the list of other observations. You know, I mentioned this last night, but on the opening kickoff, everybody got it wrong. The referee got it wrong. Burke Hardin and Brady got it wrong. It was a penalty on St. Juiced.

He was in a legal procedure flag on the opening kickoff, and Washington had the choice. Not the Chargers. Washington had the choice of either re-kicking it or letting the Chargers take it at the 35. Well, they were going to re-kick it. They re-kicked it from the 40, and they gained 11 yards in field position. Preston Smith got his first action of the year. I went back trying to find the plays that he was in on. Smith was in on 16 snaps.

You know, not a lot that was certainly noticeable. Eddie Goldman, by the way, I wanted to mention him again. I thought he, as part of that rotation with Newton, with pain, and with Kinlaw, Goldman's playing okay. The guy that actually defensively, and it'll be really interesting to hear the film breakdown from Souter, because the only player he really liked last week on defense was Lovu. Lovu missed two tackles in this game. We'll see if Souter downgrades him for that.

But Preston Smith played. Jordan McGee played in the game. Darnel Savage played in the game. So you've got players playing now some plays that haven't played. I think played last week in his first game. But here's the thing. Wagner didn't come out of the game. Wagner still played all 67 defensive snaps.

And by the way, Louvoe played one fewer, but that meant McGee was in there for his 12 snaps with Wagner, not replacing Wagner. And you could see that. Wagner, by the way, was, you know, he is, he's their best tackler, right? Easily their best tackler. Certainly one of them and their best run defender by far.

You don't want them in coverage, that is for sure. All right, real quickly, I've already talked about the fourth and seven at the eight, the end of game situation. The end of half situation, I'll net it out this way. I thought this would have been a moment in which being conservative would have been very understandable. He doesn't really approach it that way with Jaden in the game. They've got the ball first and 10 from their own seven with a minute 35 to go with one timeout. Also important to note that the Chargers only had one time out, and you're going to get the ball to start the second

half, and it's a 10 to 7 game. You could have certainly understood if they had run the ball a couple of times, and maybe if they ran a draw and it picked up six or six, maybe they pick up the pace a little bit and try to get that first, first down, and then they can go for it. But no, they came out firing. That was one of Jaden's misses to Ertz. It was kind of high on first down. Ertz could have caught it. It was the only time he was targeted in the game.

Then Jaden takes a sack, all right? And now it's third and 15. I think on second and ten after the first in completion, they should have run the ball and force the chargers to at least call their last time out. and if they didn't call their last time out, which they didn't after the sack, you take your time, which is what happened. But I got to tell you something that I saw on the 3rd and 15 from their own two-yard line. Bud Dupree wins as an edge pass rusher, and he misses the ball on Jaden's release throw to Debo Samuel, which fell incomplete.

He misses the strip sack by a whisker. If he gets stripped in that end zone and the chargers fall on it for a touchdown to go up 17-7, it's a different feel for the way Quinn approached first and 10 from their own seven with one timeout left. Look, the roughing the punter on the punt return on the next play, and now they're firing again from their own 17. And I guess from their own 17, 34 seconds left one timeout. They've been aggressive in that spot before. I don't think he expected him to throw a 50-yard bomb.

There were underneath routes. But McCaffrey went deep and Jaden put it on the money. And the rest is history. They kicked a field goal. But, you know, there's no doubt that there's a case to be made for them to have approached that more conservatively. I love the aggressiveness. But, you know, you can't be aggressive to the point where you put your team and the game in which you have gotten back into at risk. And he did.

You know, Jaden got sacked and then Jaden almost got strip sacked and fumbled in the end zone. It was so close. Thank God it didn't happen. But, yeah, I think that's it. Five point favorite Monday night. Go get them. NFC's loaded. You gotta, as Eddie Jordan once said, harvest those nuts, and they harvested one yesterday. You know, the first five games of the year, with all of the injuries, with not having

Jaden for two games, with the concerns about them defensively in particular, they're three and two, and they're a game behind the Eagles. All right, we'll finish up the show talking about Maryland's loss to Washington, an absolute brutal defeat. They blew a 20-0-0 lead in the final 18 minutes of the game. We'll do that after these words from a few of our sponsors. He'll get it. And he puts in. Washington leads for the first time today.

Maryland trails for the first time this year. Maryland led Washington 20 to nothing late in the third quarter. They were dominating the Huskies in College Park on Saturday afternoon. And then the game flipped. Washington scored 24 unanswered to beat the Terps in what was an absolutely brutal loss their first of the year. That was the Big Ten network call. On that call was Jake Butt. Jake does a lot of games for Big Ten Network.

He's excellent. We've had him on the show before. He will join me in a moment. This segment of the show is brought to you by Windows. Nation, if you've been thinking about new windows, October is a good month to get it done. The return of Chilliare, and we'll have it later on this week. It'll seep into your home through those old windows, and you'll pay much higher heating bills. You'll be less comfortable with those annoying drafts that come through older, cracked, stuck, hard to close, hard to open

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or head to windownation.com. All right. Joining me right now, as promised, Jake Butt. Jake was a really good college football player, a tight end at Michigan for the Jim Harbaugh teams. And for the last few years, he's been an excellent analyst for the Big Ten Network. And he was in College Park on Saturday for that absolute, unbelievable comeback by Washington. So let's start there. What in God's name happened on Saturday to the Terps over the final 18 minutes of that game? well I mean it literally what what happened in the second half was the exact opposite of what happened in the first half like I can't I can't remember ever playing in or seeing such a stark contrast of two halves you know Maryland was able to kind of they were balanced offensively in the first half they were able to at least get the run game going by their standards they dominated the the time of possession they were able to Pep Hamilton schemed up

easy completions for Malik Washington and Malik Washington was able to take advantage of them. His receivers caught the ball. They blocked well and they moved the change. They succeeded on third down. And then for the Washington Husky's offense, DeMond Williams couldn't connect on any of the easy ones. You know, he missed countless throws

to Denzel Boston, his go-to guy, something we're not used to seeing. And then all of a sudden, come the second half, you know, Demand Williams starts. connecting on some of these passes. His legs come alive and he starts to get going. They feed Jonah Coleman. They get going. And before you know it, Maryland's offense goes three and out twice. And all of a sudden, it's Washington dominating the time of possession. It was just completely different. I can't help but think that injury to Sidney Stewart played a massive factor in this game because DeMond Williams just was not comfortable at all in the first time.

half in the pocket. And then all of a sudden you take away one half of Maryland's pass rush on top of the fact Zahir Mathis was hurt during the game. And all of a sudden, he's got more time and more comfortability. So, I mean, talk about a back and forth game, though. Wow, was chaotic. Yeah, Sidney Stewart, arguably Maryland's best defensive player, getting tossed for targeting with four seconds to go in the first half, was a really difficult loss for them. And it hurt them. the second half. But I wanted to ask you about Maryland's offense because I've really enjoyed your calls of games. And you were talking in the first half about what a great job, Pep Hamilton, Maryland's offensive coordinator. Pep was a guy that worked with Andrew Luck at Stanford,

then went to the pros and was with the Colts and Andrew Luck in his first few years in Indy. And you were just talking about how he has done a wonderful job with true freshman quarterback Malik Washington and how he was doing a great job in the first half. You know, not putting the pressure on him, calling a balanced attack, using short, you know, quick passes, screen passes, you know, basically not putting the ball in harm's way and not putting him into a position where he had to carry the team. Did something change offensively for Maryland in the second half? No, I don't think it changed. you know, that's what, was there half-time adjustments?

Was there anything? No, I don't think it changed. I really think it just comes down to like execution. Like in the first half, why Maryland, why it felt like Maryland was succeeding was partly because, okay, yeah, they were succeeding. They were able to run the ball. They were completing these screens and completing third downs

and moving the chains. But also the flip side was Washington was, the Washington Husky offense. DeMond Williams. He was missing throws that typically does not miss, which means they're punting the ball and giving the ball away. And then there was penalties for Washington. So a lot of it was Washington hurting themselves or not taking advantage of opportunities when they were there, which gave Maryland opportunities and they were taking advantage of it. All of a sudden in the second half, though, Washington, they're converting those third downs. They're moving the ball.

The game just has a completely different feel to it. But all that changed is Washington was executing. Meanwhile, Maryland wasn't. You're so right about Washington. They couldn't do anything in the first half. They looked dead. The quarterback looked off. And then in the second half, their first four drives

after not scoring at all in the first half, all they did in the first half was punt, turn it over, and get stopped on fourth down. And then the first four drives of the second half. Field goal, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown. And then their fifth and final drive, they just ran the clock out. And you made the point during the broadcast that their quarterback, Demand Williams, didn't run in the first half, didn't seem to want to run. And then he used his legs big time in the second half.

And he is fast and elusive. And it was a difference maker in their comeback. What about our quarterback? What about Malik Washington? What was your first impression of him, seeing him live? Well, my first impression was meeting him in camp, and he was injured, he didn't practice. And my very first impression, shaking his hands,

looking him in the eyes and talking with him briefly was, there's no way this kid was just at his high school prom a few months ago. Like, what are you, that's what we're talking about? I mean, he carries himself like an NFL vet, let alone a college vet. vet. So it's the maturity and the leadership that jumped out right away. Seeing him in person down on the field, oh my gosh, the talent is just immediately apparent. He never looked rushed. He never looked out of sorts. He looked completely comfortable in that game. He has a maturity and ability to, you know, some young guys, they press and they want to prove themselves. But Malik is

very comfortable letting the game come to him, taking what the defense gives to him. And then got that arm talent and ability to push the ball down the field. I really, what stunk for Maryland and what stunk for Loxley and Malique and obviously Farooke was as bad as that second half was, there they are with the chance and they're driving. And we just give the all state good hands award to Farooke. And Washington throws a dime on a slot fade on fourth down and hits Farooke right

in the hand. Perfect throw. and yet it's what we've seen all season, a drop from the Maryland pass catchers. I thought it was his best throw of the night by far. I mean, it was the, you know, and it was right there, and they're, you know, they're in the red zone at that point,

or, yeah, you know, with a chance to win the game. So the one, and I've watched, you know, all five of their games now, the one thing that I kind of observed, and I'm curious if you agree or disagree, is everything you said about his point, and the physical ability and kind of his patience, which is so unusual. Again, I give Pep Hamilton a lot of credit for that.

But I think his accuracy is a bit inconsistent. You say what? I'd say that's fair. Yeah, that's true. Streaky, it seems, you know, it seems like when he's on, he's really on, and then he might have a handful of throws where he's off. But, you know, it's hard because that's true for most quarterbacks. You know, I think part of it is we see what it looks like when it's working for him,

that we start to hold him to this standard of it should always work for him. But that's not the standard we hold anyone to. Completion percentage looks completely different when you factor in, when you take away throwaways and factor in the drop. So to me, I don't have, it's not like a noticeable negative in terms of when he is going through those spells of inaccuracy. All right. So is it possible that what we were just watching on Saturday?

I mean, I'm a Maryland guy. I was fired up for the game. I was thinking, you know, at 20 to nothing, oh, my God, we're going to be ranked this week with Nebraska coming to town. But is it possible that we just watched, you know, a very exciting game played between two average teams? I mean, that's, it's possible for sure. I mean, that's that's the lower end of the possibility. The, the upper end of the possibility is that these are two, those two teams are dangerous with capable offenses. And, you know, I, I certainly felt Washington played much better than the final score might have been applied against Ohio

State. They just can't get out of their own way with penalties and all this other stuff. But, you know, this is the thing, though, is this is the Big Ten, like, average, mediocre, whatever it is, outside of like that tier one where you got, you know, Ohio State, Oregon, Michigan, Indiana, you know, Penn State. I don't know if you can say that right now. But with that back game, I mean, my goodness. But then you just have this middle portion of the conference, which is, are they mediocre? Or is it just, there's just no separation between 12 different teams, you know, and I lean towards it being the latter. Interesting. I mean, going into it, and this will be the last one about Saturday,

I thought Maryland was very impressive defensively, but I wasn't sure because Wisconsin, you know, is not a dynamic offensive football team this year. And they had quarterback issues when the Terps played them. But I came out of the game, even though Washington got it going in the second half and did a great job and made a lot of plays, by the way. I do think Maryland's really talented, like with NFL talent on defense. What do you say? Oh, yeah, I agree. I agree.

And the youth is, again, what's really impressive, the Stewart and Mathis on the edge. I mean, that is, those are two, I mean, gosh, I'm trying to think mentally. I mean, that's got to be, you know, one of the best group of a pass rush doer in the conference and their true freshmen. I feel like Maryland hit on the interior. I mean, this is a revamped defensive line. And I've been really impressed by the level of production they've been able to get from the interior of guys that are like FCS guys and MAC guys. Linebackers, Wingate and Reddick are extremely athletic. Husky is a trustworthy safety.

The secondary had been playing well. You know, this isn't an elite defense like an Ohio State or Michigan. Right. But I came away from that game, even in the loss, saying, ah, this team does look different. You know, there's been a lot of losses in October, and there's been a lot of losses off by, but man, there's no moral victories, but the team did look different to me.

And I think that there's some encouraging, there's something there's something to be encouraged about with that yeah i agree with that i wanted to see that and i saw it and it was painful and brutal yeah the way it ended but it's like i in so many ways i came out of it thinking okay they're actually even a little bit better than i thought um can't say one more thing though sure please yeah the the glaring the glaring issue and this has been an issue for years is the offensive line now though like You know, it's, it's, they have just not been able to run the ball at all, all year. Why?

Well, they're, they're not able to consistently win the line of scrimmage. They did a decent job of it in the first half, though. I mean, they were literally winning the line of scrimmage. But that's, that's the missing piece in the next level here. And when I was there for fall camp and we're watching them do their walkthroughs, you know, I didn't sense a great urgency or commitment in an intense. attention to detail from the offensive line. And Mike Locksley kind of said that in his post-game pressure that he felt the young guys didn't handle success during the by week all too well.

That is the next area, man. If they could just improve 20% or 30% in the offensive line, that's the difference between winning and losing that specific game. That's the difference between winning or losing in October and November in the Big Ten. If you can't control the line of scrimmage or at least hold your own, you know, you certainly can't get dominated. you got no chance. Yeah, they've been at a disadvantage in the trenches pretty much since the day they entered the Big Ten from the ACC now over a decade ago. It has been the Achilles heel for Maryland in the Big Ten trying to compete with the big boys at Ohio State and Penn State, Michigan, and Iowa. And when I say big boys, I'm talking about big boys in the trenches. They've had a couple of

teams here and there that the front line starters have been, you know, capable and competitive, but they've never had the depth on their offensive line or defensive line to really compete consistently with the powers in the Big Ten. You know, they've been able to scheme around it a little bit with, you know, like the Leotung of Iloa years. They generated a ton of offense and some good teams, but not upper echelon big 10 teams. And, you know, the difference between those upper echelon big 10 teams in Maryland, without question, have been along the offensive and defensive lines.

I'm getting sidetracked here, but I wanted to get your thoughts just on Pep Hamilton's offense, which I think has a lot of pro elements to it. You know, Malik Washington's not in shotgun. He's not in pistol the entire time, you know, running zone reads and running RPO's. He's under center a bunch. They've got some zone run mixing with bootleg and play action,

which ends up being a little bit more protective of them. They're trying to, you know, establish, you know, a running game. Look, they've only had two legitimate competitive opponents, so we'll see how this plays out. But I kind of like what they're doing. They're at a disadvantage maybe against some of these teams in the trenches, but I kind of like what Pep Hamilton's done with Malik Washington. I know we talked about it earlier,

but do you see it the same way that the approach is, you know, more pro elements in the offense than, you know, a pure college offense? Absolutely. No, it's, and I give Pep credit, you know, more people need to judge their, you know, evaluate coaching based on, you know, What's the totality of the situation? What's their level of personnel?

What's their level of health? What's their capacity to understand a complex team? You know, Pep has that NFL background. I've been in offenses that are very similar to his with a ton of verbiage. And, you know, they were rotating their interior. They were playing some freshmen at guard. They converted a defensive lineman. I think his name was Daniel Owens over to tight end to try to get some blocking

help there. They're bringing an extra offensive linemen. So they're trying. They are trying. It's just this is not going to be an overnight fix, but that's been a glaring issue. I mean, Billy Edwards, consistently one of the most hit quarterbacks in the Big Ten. Same thing for Talia, a smaller

framed guy. Malik does a good job of getting rid of the ball. But gosh, you just have to you don't need to dominate. I think Maryland's ever going to have the talent to dominate the trenches, but you at least have to be able to hold your own, particularly in October and November.

All right, real quickly, before I let you run, I mean, we're approaching, believe it or not, the halfway mark of the season. It flies by. So in the Big Ten, who do you think the best team is? I'd say the best team, it's either Ohio State or Oregon. I'm extremely high on Oregon.

To me, Dante Moore is the best quarterback in the conference. but, you know, I think what I've seen at a Julian saying is this guy just keeps getting better and better every week. And it's real quiet because Ryan Day seems to, he's done a great job coaching this year of, you know, he understands that that Buckeye defense is lights out. I mean, they might be a historic defense with historic playmakers and multiple guys. I think Caleb Downs is a first rounder for sure. I think Arvel Reese could end up being a top 10 pick. They're linebacker that's kind of like a hybrid edge. And what Ryan Day has done is said, hey, let's run the ball, let's control the clock.

They play at one of the slowest paces in all of college football. So they haven't put a ton on the shoulders of Julian Sand, their red shirt freshman. But when they have called his number, he's been outstanding. So I think it's a race between those two of Ohio State and Oregon. You know, I have to give the edge to Ohio State right now just because I feel more confident in their defense. And I just think offensively, we haven't even seen them at their highest level yet. But I will say this too. I'm very interested, as always, the Ohio State Michigan matchup at the end of the season, because though I can say in one breath that Ohio State

is the best team in the conference, Michigan is a very bad matchup for Ohio State. That's what we've seen these past few years. So, you know, it's weird how this works where Ohio State is just so talented, but Michigan, the way they built their team, is just a bad matchup for the Buckeyes. That may be true. I'll tell you, in watching Michigan this year, and you've watched him a lot closer than I have, I just don't think that that freshman quarterback, I know how gifted he is and how talented he is, he just doesn't look ready. It looks like he's a little raw, and maybe, you know, his year is next year, not this year. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, I, I think he's done enough.

To me, that's not my biggest concern. I think Michigan has a defense that's going to keep them in every single game. Okay, so all of a sudden, you're in every single game. How do you win these games? Well, they have an ability to control the line of scrimmage because their offensive line is good. At times, the offensive line is great, but also at times the offensive line is average to below average. The big concern for me is the wide receiver play is extremely average. outside of Donovan McCauley, they don't have much.

You know, Samaj Morgan, I don't think he's starting. Samaj Morgan wouldn't sniff the field for Maryland if I'm just being completely honest with you right now for Washington either. They saw a nice explosive game from their freshman. A guy by the name of Andrew Marsh, he's like 6'1, about 200 pounds, good, good strong true freshman receiver. But right now, I think Bryce has done enough for me to feel confident in it. it's just the past catchers are so average around him. I love that running back for sure. What about Indiana, Oregon?

Do you give Indiana a shot? And you mentioned the Oregon quarterback. What do you think of Mendoza at Indiana? Yeah, I mean, I've seen so many mock drafts where it's like Dante Moore at one, Mendoza, two, Dose at one, Donte, I mean, holy cow. Two names that weren't even talked about before the season started. and here we are five weeks into it and it's all shifted. Well, it speaks to the importance of system,

it speaks to the importance of coaching and, you know, to the level of talent around them. I absolutely give Indiana a chance. I think this will be a much tougher matchup for Oregon than Penn State was. You know, Oregon is starting Brandon Finney, a freshman in the secondary. Naim offered another freshman that said they have youth in their secondary and Penn State just couldn't do anything to try to test it.

Well, Mendoza, Elijah Sarat. So they have legitimate NFL talent on that Hoosiers football team. I mean, Mendoza is a first round talent. Surat is a day two, day three pick. They have multiple NFL offensive linemen. You guys remember Roman Embed. Yeah, of course. He's leading him and rushing.

Yeah. Yes, and they got NFL players on the defense. They might have eight guys get drafted this year. So this is a seriously talented Hoosier football team. Obviously, big test going on the road there to Austin. It is tough to hear, tough to play. But Signetti is just, man, talk about, we've seen such great coaching jobs in the conference this year.

I look at that that's the biggest difference in the Big Ten these days. The quality of coaching has never been better. The quality of quarterback play has never been better. Across the board, I take the Big Ten's coaches and the Big Ten's quarterbacks over every other conference right now. Signetti's great. He's just, he's tough to deal with, man. He can be insufferable to listen to. There's a lot of similarities to him and Jim Harbaugh, in my opinion. I think Harbaugh was always much more likable. I mean, personal opinion. But anyway.

Go back to my days. Go back to my year, year, 2015, 2016, yeah. You say the same. Okay. I don't know. I've always been, I've always loved, I've always liked Harbaugh. And I, and I've always understood how much he's players liked him, right? I mean, you tell me about your experience with Jim Harbaugh. Well, it was different. I mean, we liked Jim for sure, but we feared Jim. There wasn't a lot of, there wasn't a strong, like, close relationship. You know, I was voted team captain alongside Chris Wormley, and I can tell you, never did I just go sit in Jim's office and have a casual conversation, and, you know, he never asked my opinion. And it was, there was a baseline of fear there.

Now, we had the talent to overcome it, but that slowly hurt Jim over time. You remember that COVID year, but they were just horrible. Right. Well, Jim hired Biff Pogi full time, and that was a big point of emphasis where Biff said, listen, Jim, these players fear you. You don't have a relationship with you. They don't have a relationship with you. They don't have a relationship with you.

Bill plays so much harder for you, Jim, if you invest in them. Build a relationship with them. So Jim got younger on the staff. That bad allowed the players to connect with the staff. Jim kind of chilled out a little bit. And there's been a big switch. To me, the gym that we've seen starting at about that 2021 season all the way till now,

he's a completely different guy inside the team facility. Interesting. Yeah. From afar, and I'm not a Michigan person. You know, you guys, that fan base is also a tough one, but, you know, it's certainly iconic. It's iconic for sure. But I've always loved watching his teams.

And the wins over Ohio State over the last several years have just been thrilling games, especially last year. I mean, one of the all-time stunners. Thanks for doing this, Jake. Really appreciate it. Really love your work. At Jay Booty 88 on X on Twitter. He does a great job analyzing a lot of these Big Ten games. appreciate it. Hope you're well. Hope to do it with you again down the road.

My pleasure. Yeah, great catching up. Sounds good. I'll be on the call this weekend for the Nebraska game. Oh, perfect. Perfect. Maybe we'll talk sooner rather than later. Thanks so much, Jake. Thank you. Take care. Would have been much better if Jake was getting ready to call 5-0 and 24th ranked Maryland at home Saturday against Nebraska instead of 4-1-1. and not ranked and not even having gotten a vote in either poll, Maryland, after two weeks of getting votes in the AP and the coach's poll. This was a painful loss Saturday in College Park.

There was no hint with Maryland up 20 to nothing in the third quarter that Washington could put this together. They just had been inept pretty much the entire first half, and Maryland took the opening drive of the third quarter, drove it down their throat, scored. They're up 20 to nothing. And then, you know, Washington's first offensive drive of the third quarter was a long drive that ended in field goal. It wasn't even like they scored a touchdown and you're like, all right, well, they're

within two scores. It was a field goal. They were still down 17. and they were down 17 heading into the fourth quarter of the game. They scored 24 unanswered, 21, three touchdowns on three straight drives in the fourth quarter. And it's not like Maryland was helping out with turnovers or with a bad special teams, you know, punt coverage on a big return. Washington went their drives in the second half, 16 plays 55.

yards field goal. Nine plays 74 yards touchdown. Four plays 75 yards touchdown. And then 11 plays 80 yards touchdown. It just, and then Maryland had an opportunity down 24 to 20. And we talked about this play. Malik Washington puts a perfect ball on Jalalalouk. It would have put Maryland into the Red Zone with about a minute and a half left and a chance to score a go-ahead touchdown and Farooke dropped it. Maryland leads the Big Ten in dropped passes this year. I did, as I said to Jake, I did actually come out of this game feeling a little bit better about Maryland. It's not that I didn't feel great about them going into the game. I just didn't know. And look, they've had a history of, you know, 3 and 0, 4 and 0 starts, not against great competition. I know they beat

Wisconsin on the road, and that was a good win, but it is not a good Wisconsin team this year. And so I wanted to see it against Washington. I wanted to see if their defense was as good as I thought it might be. I wanted to see if Malik Washington could take a step forward, if they could be a little bit more explosive offensively, because that's not what they've been this year in building that 4-0 record. It's really been about opportunism, you know, turnovers and short fields. And I actually came away feeling better about the team,

and I had to do it with a loss as a fan of this team. There were, look, TURP fans, we are known for referee complaining. But Sidney Stewart getting thrown out for targeting at the end of the first half. That was a very questionable targeting call, and it hurt. It hurt big time. Also, there was a taunting call on Maryland's DB joiner in the end zone, which was a joke. There was a running into the punter situation where it clearly looked like it was roughing the punter. That would have given Maryland an automatic first down in a 20 to 7. game and would have kept the ball there.

They got hurt by a couple of very questionable calls. And let me just say this. I know the fan base wants to put it all on Loxley. He's now 0 in 10 following a bye week as a head coach. And I didn't think that this was an unprepared team Saturday. There have been times when, you know, I, have watched Maryland under locks, and I've said, wow, you know, 11, 12, 13 penalties, not getting lined up right. Just a lot of the discipline stuff, penalties, other stuff.

I didn't feel that way about them on Saturday. They only had five penalties in the game. One of them was that targeting call. One of them was the unnecessary or the taunting in the end zone, which I thought was a terrible call. I think that they are going to struggle a little bit offensively against some of these teams. I think Malik is making progress. I think Pep's doing a great job calling it. But yeah, I don't know. That sucked. I don't know that we didn't watch two average teams play a memorable game. That's very possible. But I also think Maryland's got a chance at 4 and 1 to certainly get to, at the very least, bowl eligibility. They are a 5.5. 6-point dog at home on Saturday against Nebraska. Nebraska is 4 and 1.

Their only lost came at home against Michigan. They beat Michigan State this past week. They beat Cincinnati in the opener. Now, that's all the way back on August 29th. I think it was the Friday night game before Labor Day weekend. Cincinnati's turned out to be a very good team. So this will be a test. Nebraska, I think, is better than Washington. But we'll see. And then the Terps go to UCLA and that looked before Saturday like it would be a no-brainer win, but UCLA, you know, shocked Penn State. And then they've got, I think, their toughest game of the year. That'll come against Indiana on November 1st at home. I mean, Indiana's got some games before they come to College Park, including this week at Oregon.

If they were to go to Oregon and win on Saturday, they're ranked seventh in the country, Oregon's ranked third. Then they have Michigan State and UCLA at home before Maryland, so they would likely be in the top five coming to College Park on November 1st if they can go to Oregon and win on Saturday. That won't be easy. That line's seven. It's not a lot. Oregon's really good.

But one of those Maryland losses where people are saying same old, same old, you know, Loxley, Terps, it feels that way. But in watching that game, I actually came away thinking they got a shot to be a decent team this year. It's a shame they didn't win that game. All right, enough about that. Done for the day back tomorrow with Tommy.