The Kevin Sheehan Show - Washington Wilts In Red Zone

Episode Date: October 25, 2021

Kevin recapped Washington's 24-10 loss in Green Bay to drop them to 2 and 5 on the season. WFT radio play-by-play voice Bram Weinstein joined the show with his thoughts. Kevin talked other NFL, the Penn-State-Illinois 9-OT game, and Maryland's loss at Minnesota.  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 Cheon Show. Here's Kevin. First here, D.C. Joe Barry. Open his defense can get another stand here on third and eight. It's Heineke to the end zone.

Picked off. Well, that wasn't the only bad play from Taylor Heineke in the game yesterday. He had others, but he had some good plays in the game, too. 24 to 10 Packers over Washington. in a game that had a lot of interesting things in it. We'll get to all of it. Washington falls to two and five. They are headed to Denver Halloween afternoon,

a 425 game in Denver against the Broncos, who are four-point favorites right now. Coming off a long sort of mini-buy, they played on Thursday night against the Browns. Already some of you saying this is a Code Red game, look, the code red would indicate that if they win, season on. I don't think there's much of a season to be had here. I don't.

But if you want to feel good on Halloween night going into a bye week and being three and five in a division where you'll have four games against two teams that you're probably just as good as, okay, we can do that. By the way, the show today is presented by direct, TV, the DirecTV stream. Get your TV together with the best of live and on demand. Learn more at directtiv.com. I'm going to get to my game take here momentarily, but I wanted to open with just a couple of thoughts. And in admission, it's not a new admission, but it's more of an emphasized admission. First of all, the Washington football team's a bad team. They were better yesterday. and I'll get into that. It wasn't their worst performance of the year. It was a mediocre performance, and mediocre is an upgrade over what they've been, but it's not good enough to beat the Packers at Lambo.

Even a Green Bay team, which, if you didn't know this, was without yesterday four defensive starters. And their starting quarterback, Aaron Rogers, was less than 100%. He had a bad back. That came out after the game. It was interesting. He said about his bad. back something that he's complained about previously, which is why for home games do we have to go to a hotel and sleep in a bed that we're not comfortable in? The most important night of sleep is the night before a game, and I've got to sleep in a bed that I'm unfamiliar with. It is a little bit sort of antiquated. They do that to make sure that all the players are then able to get onto a bus and get to the stadium on time. And I'm sure teams like having the entire team together, and they can do

things in their hotel room, whether it's on the road or at home in preparation for the game. And they can have bed checks and all those other things, whatever they do to make sure that nobody's getting into trouble the night before the game. But Rogers hates it. He's like, why can't I sleep in my own bed for home games? How about just getting your bed or a bed similar to your bed to the hotel room and the room that you're going to stay in? Because you're staying in the same hotel, I would assume, for home games. So why not have a bed that you're comfortable in? just delivered and insert it into that room, and then they can swap it out with the other bed that was already there afterwards.

I don't know. Anyway, they lose to the Packers yesterday, a team that wasn't 100%. Washington wasn't 100% either. 24 to 10 was the final score. They're 2 and 5, 3 straight losses, all double-digit losses. They're a 4-point underdog, as mentioned at Denver, a team that's lost four games in a row. It's not Halloween yet.

We're still in October. And yet, to me, and I kind of felt this way last week, it feels like the conversation about this team is starting to swing in the direction of what's next. This Ron thing isn't working out. What's going to be after Ron? You know, this is the perpetual state. I talked about this on the radio show this morning. This is the perpetual state for this franchise.

You know, and I'm not talking specifically about a coaching change because while that's always a part of the conversation, there wasn't a change for a while with Jay Gruden there for five plus years. But it's always a perpetual state of being in the mode of it's broken, how do we fix it? It's never fixed here. And I'm talking just about the football operation now, just the football part of the franchise, not the appalling ownership situation. That's a given. That's never going to be fixed.

But just the football operation, it just seems like we're always in this, all right, it's another bottomed out season. How do we fix it? You know, even the worst of franchises bounce occasionally off rock bottom. And I guess last year was or could be considered a mini bounce of sorts.

But I don't know. point I guess I'm making is for those of you who are still emotionally invested, and I don't think as many of you are anymore, but for those of you that are, you know, here you are again. You're here again. You're nearing what feels like another bottomed out season. At two and five, sure, the Denver game seems winnable on paper. Don't think that it's like, oh, they should beat Denver. No, they shouldn't beat Denver. They're an underdog at Denver. They're not better than Denver, just like they weren't that much better than the Giants or the Falcons. And I tried to tell you that going in to both of those games as well. You didn't want to hear it. They won both of those games,

barely, but they did win both of those. And they can win this game. I'll feel more confident about their opportunity to win this game Sunday than I did yesterday, or I did last week. I actually really felt like they had a really good chance to beat the Saints and they didn't. But you are, and I say you are, and I said you are this morning on radio and then I caught myself and I said, wow, usually in the past I would say here we are again. Here we are. And another rock bottom. But here's the admission from me.

It's not a revelation for a lot of you. I think many of you feel the same way. I just don't feel much anymore. It won't stop me from watching the games and analyzing the team. I love football. I just don't love this team like I used to love it. I know most of you or many of you are in the same boat. And some of you are like, oh, okay, Shan, well, and what's the point of me listening to you?

Well, I still love football. I'm still watching the games. I'm still going to have, you know, opinions on these games and on this franchise. you know, you're not going to get me to stop watching them. You'll get me to turn late of a blowout game like I have the last couple of weeks, and then I DVR it and I go back and watch what I missed, you know, late last night. But I don't know. It's 22 years of just having, you know, all of that passion sucked out of me

by an absolute, you know, grotesque ownership situation. There are people I'm rooting for. I love John Allen a lot. By the way, John Allen is having a Pro Bowl season, if not an all pro season. That's hard to say on a defense that's been this bad, but he's been great. Two more sacks yesterday. I think he's second in the league among interior defensive linemen in sacks. Terry McLorne deserves better.

I like Ron Rivera. I'm not saying that I like him because I think he's an elite coach. I don't think that. I think he's a good coach. And I know I disagree with many of you on that. But I do think he's a good man who is well respected around the league. Many of those people who respect Ron Rivera a ton, many of whom may have said, be careful. Be careful about taking this job.

I'm sure now they're wondering how long he'll endure this. There is a shelf life to quality people in this organization, and I believe Ron is a quality person. the few quality people that have been in the organization, and they've been the minority in this organization over the Dan Snyder era, most of those people eventually leave, and they eventually will tell people in the media and others, I just had to get out of there. It's worse than you even think.

And a lot of it has to do with the way they're treated and the incompetence in which things have run over the years. But anyway, all of that aside, you know, even if this were a more appealing and likable franchise, they don't have what you have to have to be a winning franchise. They don't have the quarterback. And right now, when you look at the NFC, it's a bad time not to have a quarterback. Currently right now, if you look at the NFC standings and you go team by team quarterback by quarterback, There are eight to nine NFC teams, all right, more than half of the NFC teams, half to slightly more than half, that have not just better quarterback situations than Washington has, but much better quarterback situations than Washington has.

You want to do this? Let's go through them. Dak Prescott, better, okay, much better quarterback situation. Aaron Rogers much better. Minnesota Kirk Cousins much better. Tampa Bay, even though future-wise, he's old, but it's just a much better situation. Atlanta's much better with Matt Ryan. Arizona's much better. The Rams much better. Seattle's much better.

I just gave you eight right there. Now, what would be the ninth? I don't know. I think the Giants have much better, a much better situation than Washington. It's certainly better because Daniel Jones, I think, can play, and the jury's still out. They don't know. It's a better situation to be in, well, we're not sure we might have the guy, we might not, then we don't have the guy, which is where Washington is right now. Chicago has like a young quarterback. You could argue that Jared Gough is certainly better than anything Washington has. And you could, you know, and you could certainly look at New Orleans with James Winston and say,

that's a better situation than Washington has. And San Francisco has a young guy in Trey Lance, who's hurt and didn't play last night, who knows what he'll be. But in an NFC where you have a minimum of eight, maybe nine teams minimum, that have a much better quarterback situation, that's problematic in a major way. Real problematic. If you don't have the quarterback, you're pretty much out of any real conversation about things like deep playoff runs or Super Bowls.

Now, you can still be a competitive team if ever. Everything around not having a quarterback is really good, like having an excellent defense or an excellent running game. But the skins right now don't have any of those. They have a bad defense, and they have a couple of players that are good. You know, through seven games, I think you can say they've got a few decent players on this team, maybe even more than decent, more than they've had in recent years. But the team doesn't have a quarterback currently, nor does it have much of a quarterback. quarterback future as we speak. And so when you don't have that and the rest of the team isn't

very good. I mean, for crying out loud, the defense is giving up the most points in the league at 30 points per game. They're the worst third down defense in the league. And the overall point differential of minus 64 for Washington is second worst in the NFC, behind the NFC behind the Lions, third worst in the league behind the Lions and the Texans. Actually, I think the Jets are worse. now too. But second worst in the NFC, their point differential of minus 64. So there you go. You don't have the quarterback thing figured out for now and you don't have anything that you can look forward to in terms of building around something for the future. And then the team around it isn't very good either. None of it's very encouraging. But Ron Rivera did talk yesterday

about a team that showed fight, so there is that. I thought they did show fight yesterday, but they showed fight, and they still lost by two touchdowns. My complete game take, what I liked, what I didn't like, and more right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's game take. All right, my game take today presented by, my good friends at my bookie, what's a lock in sports betting? Well, there aren't many, but my bookie's off.

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specific items. We're grading on a curve here, you know, when it comes to the things that I like. and didn't like. You know, I watch the games like you guys do. I take notes because I have this show. And at the end of the game, you know, I look at, you know, sort of the things I've starred as things in guys and things about the team that I really like from the game. And, you know, and then I start to put it all together. And there were a long, there was a long list yesterday of things that I liked. Shouldn't be in a 2410 loss to the Packers. But there were some things that I liked. but we're grading on a curve. We are.

I mean, we've watched what they've been, and it's more or less like, whoa, they were better at that this week. Oh, they were better at this than a week ago or two weeks ago or three weeks ago. It's still a loss. I'll start with this. They played better, as I just mentioned.

That's the first thing on my list of things that I liked. This was a game where they weren't nearly as bad. They weren't nearly as bad as they've been at times this year. You know, to believe that would require that you've seen the other games this year. But they were better on defense than they've been. They moved the football on most drives in this game, though they self-destructed when it came time to finish those drives. But, you know, Ron Rivera said it after the game.

They showed fight. You know, even down 14, they showed some fight. Now, many of you roll your eyes when you hear that. Not me. someone who especially has coached for a long period of time basketball. I do know the difference between going through the motions or giving up or there's no future with this group and a group that's going to really compete. And I thought they really competed.

It's not good enough. Their supposed better players on defense really showed some fight, but it wasn't good enough. I'm not giving them a participation trophy. I'm just acknowledging that I agree with Ron Rivera. It's not saying much when you score just 10 points and lose by two touchdowns that you've played better and you fought. It's not good enough. I understand that. But I do think that it's true, that they competed, that they hung in there, that they didn't go away and get routed 38 to 17.

17 would have been seven more points than they actually scored. 38 to 7. And you do have to acknowledge that they weren't playing a totally healthy team. Aaron Rogers wasn't 100 percent, had some back issues as we discussed. They were missing four starters on defense. This wasn't the best the Packers have to offer. And they also may have been looking ahead to their showdown Thursday night against the Cardinals in Arizona.

But with all that said, it was an honest effort from Washington. Unfortunately, they left a lot of points out. there that they could have had. They're not a good team. Their effort didn't all of a sudden create a much better football team. But I mentioned two weeks ago after the Saints game, the rest of this season is going to be about watching whether or not Ron Rivera can keep this team together and keep it from unraveling like it always does here. So far, I would say he's done that. On the list of things I liked. I thought the pass rush was as good as it's been all season long, certainly from a consistency standpoint, and most notably in the first half. Then again, it was a weird second half

for the Packers. They only ran 20 offensive snaps in the second half, and they had the ball on two different occasions after Washington's offense failed, you know, deep down, you know, in Packers territory. They had to start drives from their one-yard line and I think their three-yard line. So that accounts, excuse me, that accounts for some of the lack of second half sacks and pressures. Green Bay just didn't have it enough. But I thought Jack Del Rio got aggressive. I thought that they sent extra man pressures, more traditional blitzes, and maybe an exotic one or two. I don't think they blitzed on every play.

I'd have to go back and watch. It wasn't every dropback that they were rushing more than four. But they really got after Rogers and made him really work for what he got. It wasn't good enough to stop drives or stop third down conversions consistently enough. But that's because they're playing Aaron Rogers and they're playing Devante Adams. They're playing really great players. So you can sort of say they gave him a hard time. They made him really work for it, but it still wasn't good enough.

What they did, what they were able to do is just keep him from one of those games where he gets into a rhythm. and you can't stop them at all, and they put up 35 points, and you get run out of the building. That didn't happen because they sacked him three times and pressured him a bunch, pressured him into checkdowns. You know, it contributed very likely it contributed to not giving up any super big plays and mass like they have on the back end. Adams had a big time catch. Tanya had the touchdown on the back shoulder against Jamie Davis, but it was a good day

for the pass rush. Specifically, by the way, John Allen and Montez Sweat. Sweat had one of his best games of the year. And I think John Allen is just flat out right now, the best defensive player on the football team. I think he's headed towards a Pro Bowl season, even though it's on a terrible defense. John Allen has been a force, two sacks yesterday, along with another pressure or two. Also in the list of things that I liked, I thought their run defense was great. Now, the Packers didn't try to run it as much as I thought they might, but the two running backs,

Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon, nine carries 25 yards and a fumble. Dylan had a ball knocked out by sweat and recovered by, was it Collins who recovered it? I think it was. Rogers had some scrambles for some yardage, but their two running backs averaged just 2.8 yards per carry. I mentioned Collins. I thought he did a really nice job in the box. I don't think he played as much as he usually does because it was Curl and Collins in there exclusively, but when Collins was in the game, not at Curlin McCain, I mean, Bobby McCain, but I thought Collins did an okay job. Now, he got, you know, in coverage out in the flat on

Tanya once on a bootleg and that wasn't very good. But it was a good run-stopping effort all across the board, even though the Packers didn't try it that much. Also on the things that I liked list, I think the offensive line is really, really the pleasant surprise of the season. The sack number, numbers yesterday look worse. Okay, if you're looking at it, saying Sheehan, they gave up four sacks. Yeah, but three of the four came on, you know, those final two drives with the game already decided when Washington was in straight dropback mode. During the, you know, if you want to say the competitive portion of the game, the offensive

line really held up. They did a good job run blocking. They did a very good job pass blocking. It's been a pleasant surprise all season long. We were so concerned during the offseason about their offensive line. not only is it good, it's deep because Schweitzer is a player. They're going to be okay when they lose sheriff. Cosme's out and Cornelius Lucas comes in.

I think so far, John Matzko, the offensive line coach, and these players deserve a lot of credit. This has been the strength of the offense. I know you're going to really be upset when I include the following player on the things that I liked list, but sorry. I know he fumbled, again, didn't lose possession of it. I know he's probably got a bit of a fumbling problem.

I just like Antonio Gibson. I like him a lot. I think he is, he's so much different than what I would have thought at a Memphis, wide receiver, changing to running back. He's a big, strong dude that moves the pile forward. I mean, he's not getting stopped.

if there's, you know, one or two guys and they're up high on him. He is pushing them two, three yards down the field. He's also a big threat to break one. And God, he nearly did on that first play of the third quarter. That could have been a massive, you know, game-changing moment because he got tripped up on a six-yard game that could have gone for 70 or 75. And on the very next play, Taylor Heineke was stripped, lost the ball, and then it was 21-7 before you knew it.

I understand the fumbling is a problem. I'm not, you know, excusing it. I just think he played well yesterday except for the fumble. I thought he had a very good block on the touchdown pass to McLaren in pass pro. I just really like Gibson. Also on my list of things that I liked, I really like J.D. McKissick, too. You know, I like him, even though Taylor Heineke almost got him decapitated a couple of times yesterday. Eight touches, 56 yards, a week.

after, you know, what was it last week? I want to say that it was 10 touches last week. I'm looking it up real quickly. McKissick was 16 touches last week, remember, for 110 yards. So he didn't have as many this week, you know, half the number. But I just like McKissick. I think McKissick is a really, you know, difficult player to tackle in the open field. He's very versatile as a runner in space, certainly as a pass catcher in space. And I think when he's on the field getting more touches, they have a chance to have more success offensively. I liked the blocked field goal.

Tim Settle with a nice play and a big block that kept the score 7 to 7. That followed, by the way, Chris Blewett's debut, which was a field goal that got blocked on Washington's previous drive. But I like the blocked field goal in the game. I like the overall attempt to run the footwork. football yesterday, and I liked Taylor Heineke being more of himself in the game. I'll get to what I thought of Taylor Heineke in, you know, in totality, but I loved that

he decided I'm going to start trying to make some plays with my legs. Now, on one particular play, he didn't try hard enough, more on that coming up. But it was a big change overall, and it was a request granted. I'm talking about a podcast slash radio request. but Scott Turner, you know, went to the run game, realized that they could run the ball a little bit on Green Bay, also tried to shorten the game from that standpoint. And then Taylor Heineke, 10 rushes 95 yards,

most for a Washington quarterback, since RG3 did it in the electrifying call from Larry Michael on the 76-yard touchdown run against the Vikings in 2012. Heineke, I loved that he used his legs. I loved that he was a runner. There were other parts of the game that I did not like at all from Heineke, but I liked Scott Turner's overall attempt to run the football. I loved that one stretch where they had a reverse to D'Andre Carter for 27 yards

and then a flea flicker on the next play in which Heineke kept it and scrambled for 12 yards. They were down 21-7. They sort of went for broke in the moment and said, we got to get back in this game. We got to pull this thing off somehow. And I think they also sense that Green Bay wasn't, you know, Like last week and even the week before to a certain extent was a little bit vulnerable yesterday. And they went for it and Carter fumbled, remember, and Heineckee recovered it, by the way.

And then they went with the flea flicker and then ultimately they didn't get it in. But I liked what they did there. Also, you know, this is kind of a, I guess an unnecessary dig, but it leads me to a player that I thought played well. but no William Jackson yesterday being inactive meant fewer mistackles and fewer penalties. It also meant that Danny Johnson got a chance to play, and I thought Danny Johnson played well. I thought he tackled exceptionally well. So there you go. That's the list of things that I liked. A couple of other things real quickly, I thought Taylor Heineke's touchdown pass was one of the best plays he's made all year.

He bought time after Gibson picked up the Blitzer, stepped up, and threw a touchdown. down pass to Terry McLaurin. This was not similar to the Atlanta play when they were down eight, for those of you like Sabah, who tried to act like, oh, you like this one, but you didn't like the Atlanta one. They aren't even in the same universe of the same play. That one, he was pressured, then pressured again, then under duress and threw the ball straight up into the air in the general direction of Terry McLaren, who, by the way, was completely covered in that particular play. in a down-and-distance situation late in the game where it made no sense. This one was down 7-0-0 first quarter.

His running back does a really good job, picks up the blitz, and allows him to step up and throw to Terry McClure for a touchdown pass. I thought that was a really good play. I also like the one read-option keeper. I don't know if it was legitimately a read-option because there was a lead blocker. So it's not like he's reading the end there. If he's got a lead blocker, it may have been a read-option presentation to the play.

But it was a keeper the whole way. I just love the fact that Heineke's legs were at work yesterday. And I'd love to see more, you know, read option into their game plan. You know, he's fast. He's a decent ball handler on ball fakes. They've got to respect him. That'll open it up more for the backs. And as I used to talk about all the time, especially back in 2012,

one of the real underrated parts of teams that, that have legitimate read option in their game plan, in their arsenal, where you really do have to respect the quarterback as a runner. You know, the obvious part is you are 11 on 11, because now you have to account for the quarterback in your defensive scheme. The quarterback doesn't just hand it off and watch the play, and then it's 11 on 10, but the quarterback's involved in the play, so it's 11 on 11.

But it's more than that. what you really get with that is you get great play action off of Reed option looks. When you have to acknowledge defensively that the quarterback is a run threat and the offense presents that to you over and over again, play action, that's sticking the ball in the running back's mesh point handoff and pulling it, that sucks those linebackers up. And it would make it a lot easier for Taylor Heineke. They run a lot of play action anyway at a shotgun and under center,

and they got him out, you know, booting more in the last couple of weeks. But if you present him as a legitimate read option, you know, five, six times a game where he's either keeping it or leaving it in the gut of Antonio Gibson or J.D. McKissick or Patterson, now all of a sudden you're going to go play action off of read option. It's going to be easier for him. He's going to have bigger windows. He's not going to have to necessarily throw people open. It's not what he does well.

We saw that with Griffin. I mean, they ran that one drift route off the read-option play action over and over and over again to Pierre. So it's the kind of thing that I'd love to see Scott Turner put into the offense and if he's going to have Heineke in particular. But even with Kyle Allen or Ryan Fitzpatrick. But Heineke's a legit, you know, tuck it defensive end crashes. And here he goes.

for eight, ten yards and then slides, hopefully after he gets the first down. So those were a couple of the things. I thought, you know, I mentioned the fumble by A.J. Dillon. Did I mention that or not? Defensively against the run, they stopped Dylan, they stopped Jones, and they forced to fumble. That was a sweat fumble force.

I thought sweat was really, really good in this game. Not as good as Alan. Not as good as Alan. Okay. list of things that I did not like. First of all, let's just start with this. My God, another first drive of the game for the opponent that ends in a score. In seven games now, six of their seven opponents have scored on their opening drive of the game. Five of them touchdowns, one field goal. The Giants had a field goal on their first drive. I think it was the Giants. The only

thing, the only stop they got was the interception by James Winston on the Saints first drive. Wow. Are you kidding me? I mean, that's amazing. What are the odds that the opening drive against you six times out of seven games is going to end in a score? Five times for a touchdown. You can't even hold them to field goals. Secondly, on the things that I did not like list, it was a game of offensive self-destruction once it was time to finish. drives off. Like they did a nice job moving the football. They were 0 for four in the red zone, but it was more than that. They were in Packers territory nine times, nine. No, excuse me, let me rephrase. There were nine real possessions in the game. They were in Packers'

territory eight times, and yet they managed just 10 points. It was consistent trouble in the red zone, which we'll get to. We know that. But they also had a field goal blocked, and they had a fourth down outside of the red zone stopped. Boy, that is, that's a lot of moving the football to come away with 10 points. And I never felt, let me just mention this, I never felt like even if they had gotten points that this was a team that they were going to beat. I think if Aaron Rogers had been pushed by Washington's offense to respond, I think he probably would have. Remember those two drives, let's just say Washington gets points. points. Well, the Packers aren't going to start from their own one-yard line and their own three-yard line.

So they would have had better field position. And I just think, and I feel, you know, there are games in which I'm like, man, that was a fine line between a win and a loss. And while they did move the football and they played better defense, I just didn't think that they were going to actually win the game, even if they had scored those points, because maybe it's Aaron Rogers on the other end. and Rogers would just do what he needed to do to win the game. But offensive self-destruction was a major theme to the game yesterday. You know, let's go through the big ones, right? You know, you start with obviously Washington having a field goal blocked, missed opportunity for points. Then you get a fourth and three on Washington's next,

last drive of the first half. They did take a knee at the end of the first half. And they go for fourth and three at the 27 in a seven-to-seven game with three minutes to go. I did not have a problem with them going for that. I wouldn't have had a problem had he decided to kick the field goal either. You know, context is everything. And yes, they had moved the football Green Bay had. And so, you know, they had opened up with a touchdown drive.

They had then gone on a long drive and had a field goal blocked. So I think you're still thinking, you know, these are the Packers. and they're out a bunch of defensive players, and we're going to need to score touchdowns, and fourth and three against this defense is doable. Maybe I'd like to see a read-option opportunity there. Heineke went short left to McLaurin, and it just wasn't good enough.

Then the Packers score, and there you go. It's 14-7 at the half. The second half opens with, the one drive where they didn't make it into Green Bay territory, the fumble after Gibson nearly broke a run, and then you get the drive that ended in all of the controversy, if you think it was controversy, and bad decision-making in a 14-7, 21-7 game, and Washington still in the third quarter threatening to make it 21-14. So Heineke scrambles right and, and is easily into the end zone if he stays upright,

won't even take a hit. I don't think, and if he does, it'll get flagged. And instead, he goes into kind of a concession, borderline, head first, but tucking the ball, half slide, short of the goal line. The rule is what the rule is. It's been there for a while to protect quarterbacks. Once the quarterbacks show that they are conceding

or giving up on the play, which he did give that indication, it's right when he starts that process, which was before the goal line. If he had, I want to make this clear, if he had launched himself into the end zone head first, that's a touchdown. That's not giving up.

Carson Wentz did it last night in the Sunday night game, but he didn't. And then he did the Lambeau leap, and it was embarrassing for him to do the Lambeau leap and then have the touchdown overturned because he didn't just run it in. And I know some of you want to say, well, they're coaching the Heineke out of Heineke.

Okay, well, He had 10 rushes for 95 yards yesterday. They want him to use his legs. Just run in the damn end zone. You're going to run in. Savage is not going to hit you in that particular spot. If he does, he's going to get flagged. You can go in standing up or you can go in, you know, in a headfirst diving, you know, putting the ball across the goal line.

Then you get the fourth down. So it was ruled correctly in my view. Then you get the fourth down sneakery, has the ball knocked out of his hands. Then he regains it. sticks it over the plane of the goal line. They rule on the field that it was not a touchdown. So whether or not you agree with that ruling on the field is really immaterial now, because now you're into a replay, a challenge, by the way, because it wasn't a touchdown. So it's now got to be a challenge. So Ron Rivera is challenging the play, suggesting that Taylor

Heineke did score on second effort after he recovered the fumble, then stuck it out over the goal line. But what you didn't get on replay is you didn't get proof that his knee wasn't on the ground, that he wasn't down when he pulled that fumble into his possession and before he stuck it out over the plane of the goal line. Now, do I think his knee was down or he was on top of other players? I don't think it was likely down on the ground. So yeah, I think, you know, he scored a touchdown on that play, but that's not the way it works. We all know this. You challenge. You challenge, it, you go to the replay, the call on the field was no touchdown. Now you need clear-cut video evidence that shows that it was, and they didn't have it. Therefore, the call on the field

stands. Right application in both of those cases. Complain all you want, Taylor Heineke and anybody else. That was not a touchdown based on the rules, the first one or the second one. I think if they had ruled a touchdown, it would not have been overturned on the fourth down and goal. I think if they had, I think that if they had had a better view of Taylor Heineke, they would, you know, have called it a touchdown on the field. And I think if they had had video evidence that his knee wasn't down, it would have been called a touchdown. Because forward progress wasn't stopped. It was just an issue of ultimately they didn't know if the knee was down before he stuck the ball over the plane after he recovered his own fumble. The next drive,

They get down there. Fourth and goal, fourth and two, excuse me, at the Green Bay three. I did think that that was past interference on Amos against Ricky Seals Jones. Again, I'd like to see Heineke using his legs. I'd love to see QB draw. Maybe they couldn't because there was a spy. Read option, you know, shotgun inside zone to Gibson. I'm not a big fan right now of putting the hand and putting the ball in the hands of my quarterback to throw it. into the end zone to make a big play with his arm on schedule. Not a big fan of that right now. But I did think that that could have been pass interference against Adrian Amos. And then they got down there again, had a third and eight at the 12,

and Heineke on a wheel route for Humphreys throws it right to Sullivan. Terrible throw. You know, his interceptions this year have been mostly terrible decisions or terrible throws. They haven't been deflections or Hail Marys. You know, they've just been bad interceptions. All right, there you go. Not enough closing after they moved the football. The Packers were 15 for 15 allowed when teams got into the red zone.

Teams were 15 for 15 touchdowns, not just scores. And Washington was 0 for 4 in the game in the red zone against the Packers. That was a tough break. So you had that offensively. It was a day in which you moved it, but you self-destructed late, and a big part of the self-destruction was the quarterback. I give the quarterback in this game a C. You know, if you want to say a C-plus because he ran around and he used his legs

and he made a couple of really nice plays, I think in all of these games, with the exception of the Buffalo game, and even in the Buffalo game, we made a fourth down-throw to Logan Thomas and another third down throw to McLaurin. I think he's had some good plays in all of these games. He's also had some bad plays in all of these games. The bottom line is he's nowhere near good enough to elevate a bad team to wins. And he's not even good enough with a good team to be a big time winner if he's the starting quarterback.

He lacks arm strength. He's inconsistent with his accuracy. Don't give me completion percentages. Watch the damn games. He's high on a lot of throws that are completed. For those of you that say that his receivers don't bail them out enough, they bail them out enough. Certainly Terry McLaren dropped that touchdown pass.

That sucked. You know, that really sucked before that, you know, the Ricky Seals-Jones, what I thought should have been DPI. McClorn's got to catch that. You know, that is not an elite receiver play. I think Terry McLaren is a top 10 to top 12 number one receiver in this league. But, you know, Hopkins, Adams, you know, they don't drop that pass. You've got to make that catch. You've got to bail your quarterback out. They didn't

help him there. But I think the biggest thing you consistently see with Taylor Heineke is athleticism and mobility and confidence. Those are why he absolutely will be on a roster as a backup. But you see a very subpar noodle-esque arm where you can't make the out throws with velocity. You can't make the tight window throws with velocity. He doesn't throw people open enough. And he's He throws high often, and then his decision-making isn't great. I think Kyle Allen's going to start against Tampa if they lose to Denver and Heineke, you know, is anything, you know, less than great. I know that a lot of people on the beat that cover the team don't feel that way

and that Ron seems to be all in on Taylor Heineke. I think he is until he isn't. I think if they go to Denver and lose, and I think if Taylor Heineke he plays poorly or even just average, I think that they will try Kyle Allen when they come off the buy against Tampa. That's my guess right now. We did a poll, by the way, you can vote on it at Kevin Sheen, D.C. for the radio show. And it was another quarterback-esque poll. Fitzpatrick, according to Ian Rappaport, is weeks away from playing. This is something that I think Ron Rivera has been implying. And the question is, how?

How ready are you for a change from Heineke to Kyle Allen? The three answers are, yes, I'm ready, do it now. The second answer is, yeah, okay, but it's not going to matter much. And the third is, no, stick with Heineke. Most, the plurality is 46.1% say, okay, but it's not going to matter much. That's where I am. I don't think it's going to matter a whole hell of a lot. But I'm ready to see Kyle Allen.

I wouldn't mind it. But then again, if Heineke goes and plays well and beats Den, I'm okay if he comes out and tries to beat Tampa in the big revenge game after the buy. 33.4% said, no, stick with Heineke. So still a third just want Heineke out there for the duration. And then 20.5% said, yes, ready, do it now. They're not going to do it now. He's going to start at Denver on Sunday.

But I do think that there's a decent chance if they don't beat Denver, which I would call, you know, a coin flip game, even though they're a, four-point underdog, three and a half to four-point underdog. They've got a chance to win this game. They're not better than Denver. They're just probably equal with Denver or a little bit less than Denver, which gives them a chance, even though it's on the road. Denver's got the long layoff. This is a loseable game for sure, but I think they've got a chance to win it. We'll see. We'll see when we get there. Bet you a lot of the public action ends up on Washington this week, which it's been on the opposite of Washington's games recently. Nothing has worked.

with Washington in the smell test this year. Nothing. I was hoping for just a late backdoor cover. A little touchdown 24-17 final would have been perfect. Tressway did not punt in the game yesterday. That's amazing. And yet, they only scored 10 points. That's on the things that I didn't like list.

He's their best player. I'd like to see him punt a couple of times. I'm kidding, of course. They have not had a game since the year 2000. where they didn't have a punt in the game. But when you are one for four on, you know, fourth downs, when you get stopped three times on fourth down, when you have a field goal blocked,

when you have two turnovers, you're not going to have many punts in a game. Lastly, on the things that I did not like list, the third down defense wasn't great again. You know, they gave up one early on, on a Roger scramble for 15 yards on that opening drive, By the way, their tackling was better yesterday, but the opening drive included Jamon Davis not being able to bring down Lewis on a second 10 play.

It should have been a two, three-yard gain turned in to an 11-yard gain. The fourth and three touchdown pass. The third-down defense was six for 12, 50 percent. They're still dead last in third-down defense. Wasn't good enough. Six of 12 is better than what it's been, still not good enough. That leads us to, you know, just a couple of other quick observations. So the fourth and three Rogers' touchdown pass to Devante Adams.

You know, Ron Rivera said after the game, and I'm going to read you the quote, he said, he said, quote, we had a guy that was supposed to contain on pass and he used cop technique, and unfortunately, Aaron gets out and throws across his body to Devante, and Devante catches it for the touchdown. If we're disciplined and we do our job and finish it, we keep them contained. A lot of people just assume that that's Chase Young who dropped in coverage on that play and was in that zone area where eventually Adams made the catch. Instead, he turned and tried to make a play on what appeared to be a scrambling Aaron Rogers

for the first down on fourth and three on their opening drive of the game. And that left the hole for Rogers to throw back across his body to Devante Adams and then Adams walked in for a touchdown. I'm not sure that is who Ron Rivera is talking about. Look, I'll confess, I'm not sure who he's talking about on that play, because there are multiple possibilities. One is Chase Young, and he was supposed to stay in coverage, but that really wouldn't speak to contain. Two is, I think it's Danny Johnson who's out in the flat. And then three would be the D-Line, who does not contain Rogers in the pocket.

Tim Settle crashes in, leaving the whole right side to Aaron Rogers to flush out, extend the play, and then make the play. I think that's who he was referring to. That's who Ben Standing thinks that Ron was referring to was Tim Settle in the game. What a play, though. Part of it was the defense was better, but it's Aaron Rogers. So Aaron Rogers is 6 of 12 on third down despite the pass rush pressure. You know, anyway, I think that's it for the game take. Again, I think for Heineke, I gave him like a C.

It was a C performance. I mean, the rushing yards were fantastic. The throw to McClorn was great. But my God, he hung some throws out there that nearly got guys killed. He had two turnovers. And obviously, he had the major, you know, just run it in, Taylor. Run it in. And it's 2114.

Again, not to beat a dead horse. I still never felt like they had a chance to win the game. All right, when we come back, Bram Weinstein will be our guest. Bram is going to join us. We'll get his thoughts on the team. Bram, of course, the play-by-play voice of your Washington football team. Right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, we've gone through my game take, what I liked, what I didn't like.

We'll get to some of the other NFL and some of the other things that happened this weekend in the world of sports, including that ridiculous Penn State, Illinois, nine overtime game. But Bram Weinstein is joining us right now. Bram, of course, is the lead play-by-play voice. of your Washington football team with the Angelo Hall and Julie Donaldson in the booth. Year two of Bram doing the games. And I'm going to tell you something right now. And it's why I made a note to call you.

I was in the car yesterday for the very beginning of the game, DVRing it at home. And I was going to go back and catch up. But you sounded great. You sounded absolutely great. And I know that this has been a challenge from the beginning. but I always told every single person that I've known you forever and you're a pro and you would be, you'd be good at this. And I thought it sounded great yesterday. So I just wanted to say that to start off.

How comfortable are you now doing these games? Better now that we're there. You know, last year the trickiest part of the whole thing was the road games we did off TV at the stadium. We never traveled because of COVID. it. So being there makes all the difference of the world, number one, you know, being in front of it. And, you know, I think, you know, just it's reps and time and doing it with the people over and over and kind of getting rhythms. And, you know, for me personally, like there's, there's a lot of little routines now that I've gotten into. And, you know, there's no substitute for really studying, you know, games and the team that you're playing and being around it and feeling, you know, confident that you know what you're talking about.

And then the rest of it is, you know, instincts. And I don't know. I'm a lot more comfortable than I was, and I still feel like I have a long way to go. But, I mean, it's a blast. There's no substitute in any of what we do for actual reps, live reps, to the point where you get comfortable doing it. Do you have a favorite call here in the first year and seven games? And then on the flip side, do you have one that you'd like to have back?

Yeah, I got, yes, no doubt about it. Like in Week 2 against the Giant, which you won't know now, thanks to my lovely producers, you edited it out, was the Ricky Sealed Jones touchdown. I called Logan Thomas because it was a part of the stadium that I couldn't see the corner of the end zone, and I saw a tight end to the spoon that was Logan Thomas. And it wasn't, and Ricky Silver Jones hadn't made a catch. So, you know, and it's a lesson learned, like never assumed. But it's in our viewpoint from FedEx Field,

that's the one spot of the field that you kind of can't see. All I could tell was that was a tight end, and I called Logan Thomas scored a touchdown, and if you hear it now replayed, you'll hear that they, you know, edited in Ricky Schill Jones because DeAngelo, like, caught it. You know, he was like that's Ricky Schill Jones, and I said it, and they re-edited it.

So I'd like that one back for sure. You know, my favorite play was probably the Heineke thing in the playoffs, but it was weird because nobody was in the stadium, so you have no soundtrack behind it. And I guess this year, I got two, you know, that really stand out to me. Gibson's catch and run in Buffalo, I thought, I don't know. I don't like tooting my own horn, but, I mean, I like that call.

Yeah. Yeah, and the McKissick touchdown at the end of the Falcons game that won. You know, that was, that game, I'll never forget that game. That was five games of one, and the way they won, it was just incredible, really. Yeah, there was so much to that game. All right. What do you make of this team seven games in? You know, it's two and five, and there's, you know, a lot of different.

opinions on where they are. My personal opinion I'll share with you first is I just think it's a bad football team right now that is heading nowhere. And you remember about me, you know, I'm Mr. try to figure out how to get into the playoffs looking at the head schedule. I don't have that in me this year with this particular team. What is your overall take through seven games? Well, the path to the playoffs is tough because the NFC is so top-heavy than it. It's really unusual. I saw this one stat yesterday. That, like, heading into the week, they were five, five-and-one teams are better in the

NFC, and that hadn't happened since the 1970s. So they got a really big hill to climb just to even, you know, get into a conversation about Wildcard. And I think we both will agree that, like, short of injury, Dallas is going to literally run away with the NFCs. Like, they're not. they're not, seven to nine, seven and ten, whatever it is, it's not going to do it. So we're really, we're talking about a wild card here, short of something weird happening with Dallas.

And I don't, you know, I don't, I'm an optimist, so I don't think it's over. And I do think the, I do think the schedule's about to turn, and they're not going to play Aaron Rogers, Pat Mahomes, you know, Justin Herbert, Josh Allen, like, they're not going to have all these quarterbacks. Like, I went into this thing thinking whoever thinks they're going to be number two in defense again is really wrong about that. And it has to do with competition. And I know you, of all people, don't like to look at the schedule and go. No, I did. I felt the same way. I felt the same way.

Yeah, but here, I just, you know, and the really, the really tough part about it is, is that actually the last two weeks, they really couldn't have asked to catch those two teams in a better state for a possibility of an upset, frankly. Like, the Packers were missing. Their top two corners, they don't have Desirius Smith. Preston Smith wasn't playing. He's basically being held out because of a turnaround. like he could have played yesterday. They held him out.

They're missing two of their offensive linemen. Doc Diari's not back. Like, they're missing, like, they're probably their third best receiver. Like, they're missing a lot of people. You know, I know they're five and one at all, but, like, they are. Their offense is 23rd in passing, like, stuff like that. And so they had a, they had a reasonable shot if they were playing better. And the same thing goes for the Chiefs.

So look what happened to the Chief yesterday. That team is so messed up with so many injuries that, like, you can't just chalk it up to, well, we're playing Pat, the homes are going to lose today. Well, in most cases, that might be the case, but last week, that team has so many injuries and it's so god-awful on defense that they were right to be upset. And I think that's the disappointing part here is that not only is Washington losing, they're losing by multiple scores against teams that, yeah, you know, just on paper you go, are, well, that's a Super Bowl contender, and they're better than them. But they were catching

them literally at a right time, and it certainly doesn't feel that way or what's. that way when the game is over. I think you can say the same thing about the Saints. Saints had a bunch of offensive linemen out and they lost one during the game. I think it's a really good point. They played like this murderer's row of Saints Chiefs Packers, but they caught all three teams in vulnerable spots and lost by double digits. Your quarterback thing, you know, about being through Mahomes, Rogers, that's fine, but you do get Brady, Russell Wilson likely back, Derek Carr and DAC twice. So it's not like it gets much easier.

No, it doesn't. It really doesn't. I mean, like, obviously, if we really want to start talking about them, potentially making a run toward a wild chart, they have to win this week because this is the week that they don't play an offense like that. And, you know, then they'll get a couple of weeks and we'll have to take some lumps with Brady, I'm sure. And then the schedule will turn to teams that will have records that's going to look like theirs at least for a few weeks.

So, you know, and they're going to have to play better on defense. I mean, like, what yesterday really, you know, what it was for me, because for a couple of weeks there, things got inverted. It was like, oh, my God, this team has to be carried by the offense. Like, who saw that one coming? And I don't know that they can do that, but at least for a couple of weeks, it looked like they might, you know, until the defense turns around. And yesterday was the total, they are who we thought they were.

Like, their defense is going to take them as far as they're going to go. And their offense, unfortunately, I mean, yesterday really all missed opportunities. I mean, they, I knew it. I have Rob DeMoski covers the Packers for ESPN on my show earlier this week. And the second he said to me, did you know the Packers 15 times of the Red Zone have given up 15 touchdowns?

And that hasn't happened to anybody in like just 1940. And I went, well, that's going to end this week. And sure enough, you know, in the most inexplicable ways they got down there and couldn't score. So yesterday really felt like missed opportunities more than anything. And I know these are like moral,

victories and maybe just like want to feel good about yourself, but defensively they were a little bit better than they've been in recent weeks, especially up front. They got pressure. They were a little more creative. And so if you're looking for just kind of signs of are they going to at least turn this around and have a respectable season, I think they were there. And it had everything to do with missed opportunity yesterday, in my opinion. Where are you on the quarterback?

I think where I was on Heineke going in, which is I think that they may have found a long-term backup that has a potential higher ceiling, but I don't know that we're going to know that. I think we're finding out now that there is a ceiling and that in all likelihood that he's not the long-term solution for them, not that I think anyone necessarily thought that. You know, Fitzpatrick was going to be a one-year or more, you know, type of rental situation. So they're in the same spot that they were. And I think we're back where we were, which is, you know, and we're going to be looking for

a quarterback. And the real tricky part this time is, I don't think, you'd probably know better than me, you'd follow college more than I do. But as far as I can tell the people I talk to, this is a very quarterback pool draft that's coming up here. And are you going to give up a lot of draft assets to get this guy out of liberty?

You know, like that's what it's starting to sound like it's adding up to. So I think we're going to be looking at veterans again, and I don't know exactly who's going to be available. I've come around to, you know, I think like everybody, you start. just what are your options? And there's a part of me that says if Mitchell Trebisky is up again, I would take a look at him, you know, as a second go-around type player potentially.

But outside of that, without knowing who's available, I think their options are going to be really thin, you know, this off season, unless there is some quarterback somewhere that's kind of under the radar that gets around to them, but they may end up in the same conundrum they were a year ago. They're not kept the number one pick. So even if they wanted to just slide into whoever that is, I don't think that's going to happen. Yeah, and therein lies the problem.

And I talked about it in the open of this podcast today. You're in an NFC right now where there are eight to nine quarterback situations that are not only better, but are much better. And then you've got two or three that you don't know about, but they've got young players that there's hope for. Washington's got one of the worst quarterback situations. And, Bram, you can't be a winner sustained without having that position. and answered. And so, you know, I know we all hope that the defense was going to be improved and that it was going to be better. I felt the same way you did. I thought they played a weak schedule of quarterbacks last year. It was going to be much different if everybody stayed healthy this

year. But I didn't expect to see what I saw this year. I don't think anybody did. You know, even if you were where the two of us were, which is, yeah, put the breaks on best defense in the league or top five defense in the league. But nobody saw this coming. And this is the other alarming part that even though they've been a little bit better the last two weeks, you're comparing it to the first five weeks, which were truly dreadful. I mean, we thought they played, I don't know about you. I thought they played better last week in a game in which they gave up 31 points, 500 yards, and allowed a team to convert 11 and 16 on third down.

I thought they were even better yesterday in a game in which Aaron Rogers took him 75 yards on the opening drive, and they gave up another touchdown on the opening drive of a game. It's just not a good defense, even though it might be improving compared to where it was. So where are you on this? And the notion that this was going to be, you know, the thing that we relied on for the next couple of years to carry the team until they found a quarterback. I never thought they would be number two again this year. I always wanted to temper those expectations.

I just kept looking at the schedule and the quarterbacks and going, you know, like, they may end up tense in the league, but they might be just as effective as they were a year ago because the competition and the metrics just aren't going to be the same. The team of play that are good on defensive play, a weaker schedule are going to be ranked higher, and that's just the way it works. I didn't expect this either. The third down defense is shockingly bad. I don't know.

I couldn't tell you why. I think initially there's a couple of things there. And the defensive lineman will basically tell you. this, that they were not necessarily working in coordination with one another. Their edge control on both sides, they were being taken advantage of their aggressiveness. Their secondary then, at times where they would just bring four were really playing off. And at times when they did try to bring more, they weren't getting home and they were getting exposed. And so I think there was just kind of a general lack of cohesive, you know, effectiveness that was happening for a long time

here, and I do see signs of it getting better, but I like you. It was funny. Last week, I was on the broadcast against Kansas City, and I think I said in the middle of the second half, I'm like, I mean, I can't believe I'm saying this because the yards look terrible, but like, I actually think this is one of their better defensive performances, and if you're given up 500 yards to somebody, you're not having a good game, and yet those are kind of the little wins that we're looking for. I do want to, like, I think it's worth reminding people to think people seem to forget this. They were one in five last year. People forget that part.

They were one in five. And oh, by the way, like everyone was yelling at Ron Rivera because he wasn't using timeout at the end of game. Remember that? Yeah. And he was giving him up to 30 points.

He was giving late game quizzes to quarterbacks. Yes. There were, remember because it was, they're not ready for this, they're not ready for this. They need to learn. Yeah.

They gave up 30 plus points multiple weeks. Lamar torched them. Kiler torched them. Cleveland torched them. Like the Rams torched them in that game that Alex Smith had to come back and play. And after there was an injury. So like, so like,

remember, like, it did turn. Like, their number two defense of the league didn't turn until the second half of the year. And that's why I'm trying to remain optimistic here and know it's a long year. I'm with you. The pathway to getting to the playoffs is much, much, much harder and feels unlikely. But I don't want to put it past them because they are playing a team on their level this week. Then they get a buy. And then after Tampa, they are playing some teams that are on their level that aren't Super Bowl contenders.

And I do think that, you know, that realistically, like, we have to give them the chance to get better. And, again, while they lost by four key points yesterday, I actually think it was really had a lot more to do with their own missed opportunity, specifically in the red zone and some of the choices that were made down there. Otherwise, they might have stolen that game yesterday, but they're not the type of team that right now has the margin for error to make these types of mistakes and overcome them. They're not one of those teams yet. And I'm with you on the quarterback stuff. I don't know what the answer is. And this next offseason feels a touch bleak because the draft doesn't have five guys that are going to go in the top of the team.

So they're going to be in a conundrum for sure with trying to find the quarterback again. But we've been doing that for, I don't know, 40 years. So, you know, we're used to it. Yeah. Last year turned against Danucci and Finley and Mullins and a lot of bad, you know, backup in third-string quarterbacks, too. So there was that. All right.

I know you've got to run. So too quick, you know, John McLaughlin, exit questions. Does Kyle Allen play this year? You know, I think that probably depends on whether Fitzpatrick comes back or not. And we haven't gotten a very clear answer about that. Ron Rivera doesn't like talking about injury, like ever. I mean, I know you get to talk to him every week, and you're wasting your time asking about it because you just won't answer the question.

Same with me. You won't answer the question. So I don't know where Fitzpatrick is. Like, my gut tells me after the biweek, if he's healthy, he'd be starting. Rappaport reported that it's much longer than, you know, than anticipated. And I'll tell you, of the people he, of Rivera does talk to, talk to is the NFL network. So if they're reporting it, like, then, you know, I believe in it. So, so I don't know, like, I don't know what the situation is because no one's telling me what the situation is with that.

And, you know, at his age and their record, who knows how he feels about coming back, frankly. So I don't know. So I think Kyle Allen does play if Patrick doesn't. That's how I would. How many games do they win this year? I still feel like they're going to end up 7 and 10. Bram, thanks. I think they're going to win this week.

And then I think they're going to have reasonable shots to be Carolina and Seattle. They'll win at least one of the Philadelphia games. The Giants game isn't going to matter for either one of those teams. I think they're going to end up with four. or five more wins. You know, I think it's realistic that they're going to end up that way. All right. Listen to Bram.

Call the games with DeAngelo Hall and Julie Donaldson. Thanks for doing this. Thanks, Kevin. All right, let's go around the NFL and talk about a couple of the things that happened yesterday. The biggest plays and the clutch moment. It's time to go around the NFL. What a noise. We're blocking on the screws chase.

Oh, there it goes. He had him in on bases. This will be six. What a play. 82 yards. Well, Jamar Chase has to be your rookie of the year on offense, right? I guess Mack Jones could have a huge rest of the season. He's a quarterback.

They blew out the Jets yesterday. He had a big day. But Jamar Chase, eight catches, 201 yards, and a touchdown. In a shocking result, the Bengals did. destroyed Baltimore in Baltimore, 41 to 17, a week after the Ravens destroyed the Chargers. The Bengals are in first place in the AFC North, and Jamar Chase is having an unbelievable rookie season. 35 catches, 754 yards, six touchdowns, the yardage second only to Cooper Cup. He's averaging 21 and a half yards per reception.

And of course, he's reunited with his LSU College National Champion. championship quarterback, Joe Burrow, who threw for 416 and had three touchdowns and a pick. And a 41-17 win over Baltimore. So the NFC North right now has Baltimore and Cincinnati atop the division, both with five and two records. But of course, Cincinnati has the tiebreaker now because they beat Baltimore, head-to-head. That was Baltimore's first division game of the year. They had not played a division game. They still have two with the Browns, two with the Steelers.

two with the Steelers and one more with the Bengals late in the year in Cincinnati. You got to look at Cincinnati now as legit. Like they are playoff legit, division contending legit. Who knows? They have the quarterback. They got the quarterback. Bad franchise, they got the quarterback. That's the way out, the only way out.

And you kind of got to get lucky. But wow. Burrow and Chase and sports. Samaji P. Ryan had a big run for a touchdown in the game. The Bengals roll the Ravens 41 to 17. A couple of other results that I just wanted to touch on real quickly. The Chiefs are really right now through seven weeks. The major surprise.

They're a bigger surprise at 3 and 4 than Arizona is at 7 and 0. I don't know. It's close. The Titans jumped out 27-0 at the half. Mahomes was dinged. up a little bit. Apparently he'll be fine for next week. But the Titans now own wins the last two weeks over Buffalo and Kansas City. The Chiefs only scored three points in Tennessee. And by the way, notice Tennessee took advantage of a bad defense. They rolled up 27 in the first

half and never looked back. Tennessee is at five and two. They got a weird loss. They lost of the Jets. It's a weird game in which they lost to a terrible team. But the Titans right now are certainly a contender in the AFC. The Bengals appear to be a contender in the AFC. The Bengals are a bigger surprise than Tennessee. And certainly the Raiders are a contender in the AFC. They move to 5 and 2 with a 3322 win over Philadelphia,

a game in which Derek Carr went 31, of 34, 31 of 34 for 323 yards, two touchdowns in a pick. That 91.1% completion percentage was second best all time in a game with more than 30 pass attempts by a quarterback. Drew Breeze holds the record. He was 96.7% in a game where he had more than 30 attempts. Derek Carr playing at a very high level right now. Cooley was right about Derek Carr. I was dead wrong. Derek Carr is playing.

He really came on last year. He's playing at a super high level, and he's got weapons. You know, he's got rugs. He's got Edwards. He's got Renfro, and he didn't even have Waller yesterday. They had this dude Foster Moreau who was in for him, and he had six catches for 60 yards in the game, a touchdown.

The Raiders are five and two. They are in first place in the AFC West. They play the Chiefs in two weeks. They play the Bengals in three weeks. By the way, they play Washington, you know, in early December. That was an interesting game. Did you know, and I'm glad I didn't. The smell test was terrible again this week.

Actually, it's been 500 the last couple of weeks. It was just flat out bad this week. I almost gave out Philadelphia. I almost gave out Detroit and Indy as well. But anyway, the Eagles fall to two and five. How about the return of Jared Gough to L.A. to face the Rams? 16 and a half point underdogs, and Gough put up a big time game, but threw two picks late, one when they had a chance to take the lead late in the game.

And that's sort of what Gough does. Meantime, Stafford threw for 3.34 and three touchdowns, and the Rams are 6 and 1 in the Lions. They're 0 and 7, but they're not the worst team in the league. I mean, the Lions lost on a 66-yard field goal that should have never been attempted. They lost to the Vikings on a walk-off field goal. They led the Packers at a half-time before losing that game. And they had a 1917 lead against the Rams on the road entering the fourth quarter.

They have been a real hard luck team so far. I mean, I think the Lions are much better than the Jets. I think the Lions are much better than the Texans. I think the Lions might be better right now than a team like the – maybe not the Giants or Eagles. I don't know. It'd be close. But the Lions at 0.7 are far from the worst team in the league.

They're in the bottom, you know, few. But they've been competitive each week. And then there was Tom Brady. 600 career touchdown passes in the regular season as they blew out the Bears 38 to 3. And then the game last night in a driving rainstorm in Northern California, man, the Colts and Carson Wentz and Jonathan Taylor, they did a great job against a San Francisco team that ran down their throats

in the first two drives of the game to take a 9-0 lead. There was a missed extra point in there. And then started chucking the ball around the field. Didn't really understand the play calling from Kyle last night. Real quickly, I think Indies much better than that. their record indicates. They're three and four. They've got a match up this weekend at home against the Titans, and then they get the Jets and the Jags. The Colts have an opportunity here with three straight home games to really make that AFC South a little bit more competitive

than most people think it will be with the Titans having beaten the Bills and the Chiefs the last two weeks. Don't throw in the towel on the Indianapolis Colts. They're well, They can run the football. They've got a very good offensive line. They've been a little bit unhealthy defensively, but they're good defensively. You know, they had that Ravens game in Baltimore and Monday night a couple of weeks ago. They had a huge lead, you know, a 16-point lead in the fourth quarter and blew it. So they could easily be four and three.

They lost a tight game to the Rams early in the year. I think the Colts are one of those teams that's just better. You know, Aaron said this on the podcast Friday. He liked the Colts Sunday night last night and thinks they're better. I agree with him on that. I do. Last couple of things before we finish up for the day. Number one, how about the Wizards in their win on Friday night with Dinwiddie going for 34

and them winning in overtime, 135, 134 over the Pacers to get to 2-0? I mentioned to you after the opener that I didn't think like the defense was like after one game. let's just put the brakes on a great defensive team or much improved. I just saw a really bad team that they faced that missed a lot of shots. Indy had 73 in the first half against the Wizards. So there was no Beal in this game, and they still won. Dinwiddie was great again. Bertons was phenomenal.

And then Montres Harrell now, you know, he's playing more minutes than Gafford. In two games, 18 points, eight rebounds a game for him. I really love him, but at Center, he played 34 minutes the other night, and Gafford played 18. So clearly, Wes Unsell Jr. at this point, really loves the energy that Harold has. But Gafford's a threat, too. I also, you know, was very impressed again with Kyle Kuzama. Another big game, 26 points, 11 boards. They played the Nets tonight.

Obviously, no Kyrie Irving. college football over the weekend included number one one of the plays of the year by Caleb Williams if you haven't seen it Caleb Williams and Oklahoma were actually in trouble at a terrible team Kansas. They were 39 point

favorites in that game on the road. They were down 10-0 at halftime. They faced a fourth down and one late in the game up 2823 at midfield. They went for it and Kennedy Brooks, their running back, got absolutely stoned on the play. And Caleb Williams went and stole the ball, took it right out of Kennedy

Brooks's hands before they called forward progress stopped and then carried it for a first down. I don't think I've ever seen a play like that. I don't think I've ever seen a play. In the moment, if you were watching this, which I was, you were like, what did I just see? Is that a forward lateral? Is it forward progress stopped? Is it the fourth down fumble advance rule? No, it was none of those things because they all happened behind. behind the line of scrimmage. One of the best plays you'll see all year by a quarterback. Two more things.

The college overtime rule before they changed it, if you don't know, the college overtime rule for many years was, you know, you start at the 25. Each team gets a possession at the 25. If you're still tied after one overtime, you go to a second overtime. If you're still tied after a second overtime, then in the third overtime, you have to start going for two after touchdowns. and then it would go on and on and on.

Well, the new rule is that after the first overtime, you've got to go for two in the second overtime. And then after the second overtime, it becomes a two-point contest. It becomes two-point conversion time. You get a two-point conversion? I get a two-point conversion. And it goes on and on and on until the game ends. Penn State and Illinois played a nine overtime game,

longest game in college football history. They went to overtime at 10-10. They both scored touchdowns in one of the first two overtimes. I'm forgetting now to make it 16-16, missed the extra points. It was the second overtime. Missed the two-point conversions. And then they went to seven more overtimes of a two-point conversion contest. And Illinois made one out of the first six of the additional overtimes.

Penn State made one. So the score got to 18 to 18. And then in the ninth overtime, Penn State missed Illinois. Illinois pulled off the upset 20 to 18. This is the, in my opinion, and I understand that some of you love the college overtime rule, but this is, you know, in addition to the college football, this is the new college overtime rule. This is the two-point contest after two overtimes of starting at the 25-yard line and playing somewhat normal football. But now you're into a two-point contest.

It is the dumbest and the least fulfilling way to determine a game in overtime in any sport, period. You've got to let them play real football to decide it. If you're worried about length of game and injuries, I mean, you had a nine overtime game of this nonsense. You don't have any downs. You don't have any distance. You don't have one big play. Some people loved it. I mean, have at it.

I hated it. I thought it was stupid. And I think the NCAA should change this. This is not football. You know, it's like deciding a basketball game in overtime. After one overtime, you're still tied. The second overtime, we're just going to have a three-point shooting contest. Or we'll have a free-throw shooting contest.

It's just dumb. I don't like it. Subjective, I'm not telling you how to feel. I hate it. I thought it was ridiculous. Illinois ends any sort of hope that Penn State had at getting back into the national championship playoff picture with a 20 to 18 win.

By the way, Brett Bielma, who apparently threw a lot of his players under the bus early in the week in some press conference, I'll tell you what, man, that dude does one thing better than anybody everywhere he goes. He knows how to run the football. At Penn State, very good defense. Illinois, 21 pass attempts in the game. 67 runs for 357 yards.

Chase Brown, 33 carries, 223 yards. Joshua McCrae, 24 carries 142 yards. That's in the same game. They had two running backs combined for 57 carries for 365 yards. He knows how to run the football. He may not be the warmest or cuddliest, coaches, but he knows how to run the football. Lastly, Maryland got beat at Minnesota. They're too undisciplined right now to beat a team that's at their level or a little bit

better. They commit way too many penalties. It was eight for 80-something yards, I think. They're one of the most penalized teams in the Big Ten, if not the most penalized team. And the truth is, there were multiple penalties that were either declined or multiple plays where they had more than one penalty on the play. They had a play in which they had the same player with the same jersey number out on the field at the same time. That is a penalty. You know, in college, because of all the players that they dress, a lot of players have the same jersey number, but one plays offense, one plays defense, and you're not allowed on the field at the same time. Right now, Loxley's done a phenomenal job at recruiting. I think that, you know, there's been some excitement, and it would not surprise me

if they still play another good game or two. But they are too. undisciplined to beat teams that are as good as them or slightly better than them. Maryland has now lost three games in a row. They've lost by the score of 51, 14, 66, 17, and 34 to 16. They play Indiana this week. They play Rutgers to end the season. Those are the two games in which you think they'll have a chance to get to six. There are two and a half point favorite over Indiana this week.

It's a must win if they're going to go to a bowl game because they play Penn State, Michigan State, and Michigan, three straight weeks starting November 6th. I don't know. Is Penn State going to have the towel thrown in because they're, you know, they got a quarterback that's not 100 percent. And Michigan State, to be honest with you, I think is a little bit fraudulent with their record. But still, they're playing the number 20 team, the number 18, and the number six team right in a row in November. Somehow they got to get two more to get to a bowl game. I like some of the things they're doing. I like some of their players. They're They've had a lot of injuries.

That would be one defense of why it's really gone south. But they were never going to beat Iowa, as it turns out, they were never going to beat Ohio State. And Minnesota is a team that they could beat, but not committing eight penalties with really another five or six flags that were thrown against them. They also got absolutely manhandled up front by a huge offensive line as Minnesota ran for 326 yards.

All right, that's the show. Terrible smell test. Too bad I didn't give out everything, although I think I still would have been bad. College didn't go well. I had the Jets yesterday. I had the Giants. Also had Washington. I think I would have given out Philadelphia before the show, before the games started yesterday.

But I think I also would have given out Detroit yesterday and maybe even Indy. I kind of like, kind of like Seattle tonight in the Monday night game at home against the Saints. getting for. All right, that's it for the day. Back tomorrow with Tommy.