The Kevin Sheehan Show - Washington Wins Sunday!
Episode Date: November 20, 2020Cooley and Kevin are in agreement about Washington beating Cincinnati on Sunday. Their show today includes a preview, final score prediction, and a discussion about Ron Rivera's comments to Cincinnat...i media that Washington would have taken Joe Burrow at #2 if the Bengals had taken Chase Young. Add to all of that, Kevin also has the most picks (Smell Test) he's ever had and Cooley's "Lock of the Week" is a Friday night ACC matchup. 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.
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You don't want it.
You don't need it.
But you're going to get it anyway.
The Kevin Cheehan Show.
Here's Kevin.
A cooley and Kevin football Friday, Washington, and Cincinnati in a huge game.
Sunday at FedEx Field.
I've got to tell you about one of the worst beats.
That's sort of a what do you got, which I'll get to here momentarily.
And I bet you don't know what Ron Rivera told Cincinnati media,
either yesterday or the day before, but I'm going to share that with you as well.
How are you?
I'm good.
How are you?
Good. Chris is on his phone because the Zoom thing was sounding a little echoy this morning,
and I'm not sure why that would be. I mean, did you move spots?
We're not, I can't, I can't fake this for the third time.
Yes, you can. Chris, we can, we can fake this for the third time.
This is the third time that we have done the start of this show.
And in the, in the first open, I explained to Kevin as of what he got that I was going to
come and surprise him in his studio.
He said, what? You're here?
And you were excited and it was fun. And I was too echoed. And I said, the reason I didn't
is because that would be a thoughtful thing to do. And you're just not a thoughtful person.
And so I didn't think you deserve the soft black.
I am excited. I'm excited you're here. You're here because you are closing on your house
in Northern Virginia. And you did tell me that. And I did remember. And I did remember.
that you just did not tell me when you were coming back. You didn't give me a specific date that
you were coming back. Yeah. Yeah. So we're not doing the whole open again. I'm also, I'm also,
I'm also not a thoughtful person. So collectively two non-thoughtful people are going to
still do Zoom while I'm in Virginia. I will come in next week and do it a couple days. I want to see you.
So we're going to deal with Cooley's phone today as best as we can because the Zoom was so echoey in his
house that has no soundproofing anymore because it's empty.
And if you'd come into the studio today, it would have sounded the best that it's ever spent.
But let me just tell everybody, as coolly mentioned, this is our third attempt at the open
to the show, and it just wasn't good enough.
And right now, to be honest with you, your phone's not great either, but it's a hell
of a lot better than it was.
But Chris had a harrowing story about an airport worker at the very busy yellow
Stone Regional Airport in Cody, Wyoming, where he had to stay back as the rest of his family
flew and he had to wait for the next flight, which came seven hours later. And I'm glad you
arrive safely with luggage in hand. But it sounds like you dealt with a person that was pretty
difficult. Well, it wasn't an incredibly difficult situation. But we got to the, here's the story
for the third time. We got to the Cody Airport. Our flight was at 7.15. It's a
tiny, tiny airport.
Like one flight, one terminal.
When you park, it's free parking, and you walk literally like 50 yards in your inside.
I left my truck.
I'm going to leave my truck out for two weeks.
So, actually not two weeks, but we get in at 642 to a 715 flight.
There's nobody at the front desk.
Non-existent.
Well, I got to check bags.
She comes in at 6.4.
48 says, I can't put you on this plane.
I can't put these bags on the plane.
You're not here 30 minutes before the flight.
I said, well, we were, in fact, 30 minutes before the flight.
You weren't here.
She said, I was at this desk at 645.
That's what I left it.
I said, no, you weren't.
Yeah, I was.
And I mean, my wife, yeah, you were.
And blah, blah.
So she changes her tune and she says, well, you got to,
you have to check back 45 minutes before the plane.
I'm just looking at her like, I can see the plane.
I can see the terminal. No one's bored it yet.
Just walk my stupid bags onto the plane and let us go take off.
Why would that be so hard?
I get that you don't want to, but do it.
So anyway, there's a policy in place.
You know, I've always went 20, 30 minutes before the flight.
It's never been a problem.
Apparently they changed a year ago or two years ago.
Whatever.
I'll accept that.
What pissed me off was I then stayed.
My family got on the plane.
I sat with her.
She sat on the phone for about seven minutes before she addressed me again.
And then I got my tickets.
She printed them out for the next flight at 2.30.
I said, did you make sure that I'm still in first class?
Oh, boy.
Because we booked first class tickets.
And she said, yeah, I did.
My two tickets stapled together, and off I went.
When I got back, I got on the plane from Cody, Wyoming, to Denver.
I had ticket 1B, the first row.
No alarms went off.
That would be the first class ticket.
There is no first class on that plane.
know, it's just a commuter.
Right.
I get all the way through to Denver, and I get to my second ticket, and it says, 24B, middle aisle.
Like that bitch.
Put me in the middle aisle and lied to me.
I wasn't that mean.
I wasn't that rude about anything.
I don't know what it was about me.
Maybe she didn't like my face.
But all that said, I went and got to change.
The other lady said she was sorry.
The story was more dramatic the first time I told it, but that's where we're at.
I just, I don't know why it's so hard, especially in the world we're in right now,
where airplanes need passengers to still treat them like shit.
I know.
Well, it just seems like people that, you know, when we consider people out in your area out in Wyoming,
that everybody's just so nice.
Like it's just a, you know, the East Coast is where you get all the people with Tudes.
But I just would have thought that, you know, the Cody Regional Airport,
which if you pull up the Yellowstone Regional Airport in Cody, Wyoming, you pull up pictures of it.
It honestly looks like a Lego set of an airport.
Like it's that tiny.
And so I can't imagine that walking in there and somebody was just a complete and utter bitch to you.
But it sounds like she was.
Anyway, I'm glad you made it.
And it's, you know, next week is a holiday week.
But I think it's going to be warm at least on one of the days.
so maybe we can figure out a day to play golf and drink some beers,
which would be fun.
We enjoy doing that with each other.
I'm looking through the weather.
Yeah, 50.
I mean, that's mild for you.
57 on Wednesday.
And then next, it's not bad.
Decent golf weather, but you didn't bring your sticks, so that might be an issue.
I'll want someone to win me some clubs.
We won't have any problem with that.
I'll just play with yours.
Or you can just play with mine.
All right, let me just tell you real quickly about because you love the gambling stories.
This was last night.
I'm telling you, Cooley, this was one of the worst beats of all time.
I did not give this game out on the smell test last night.
I didn't like it enough to give it out on the smell test last night.
But it was not Seattle, Arizona related.
We can talk briefly about that game here in a moment.
But the game was between Tulane and Tulsa.
All right?
Tulsa was a five and a half.
point favorite over Tulane at home. Tulsa is the 25th ranked team in the country. And going into the
game last night, they were four and one, and Tulane was five and four. Tulsa was supposed to a lot,
you know, the public was all over Tulsa. I almost gave it out yesterday. I kind of just forgot,
to be honest with you. And I'm glad I did forget because it would have been another L on the Shee and
smell test. But Tulsa was a five and a half point favorite, Cooley. And something happened in this
college game that I cannot remember the last time I saw this happen. The game was scoreless at
halftime. This is college football. We're regularly, you know, it's 59 to 52, 48, 46,
halftime's usually 27, 24. It was scoreless at halftime. Zero, zero. It was scoreless into the
third quarter before Tulane puts together a couple of touchdowns, and they've got a four
nothing lead at the end of the third quarter. I'm getting five and a half with Tulane. That's money at
that point. I mean, I'm not counting it because when you're only getting five and a half and it's a
14-0 lead, what you worry about is a potential 14-14 overtime game where you lose by seven or
you lose by six or whatever. Anyway, just to give you the shortened version, Tulane's in
complete control of the game at 14-0. Tulsa gets a drive to
cut it to 14-7, but we're into the fourth quarter now. And we're now late into the fourth quarter,
and it's 14-7. And Tulsa, with under four minutes to go, has a fourth and 14. All right, now they're
at the Tulane 27, and I'm flipping it, by the way, I'm flipping it back and forth with Arizona and
Seattle as well, because I was into that game last night. I was sort of rooting for Arizona,
because I've been shorting Seattle on the air saying that I don't think they're very good anymore.
And I still don't think that they're going to be a Super Bowl team. But anyway,
it's fourth and 14, they pick it up. Tulsa picks it up. I'm like, shit. Then they go in and they score
touchdown to tie it. It's 14, 14. But Tulane answers, and at that point, you know, there are three minutes
to go coolly, so really what you want at that point, and what more likely you will get is a chance
for a walk-off field goal. It doesn't matter if Tulsa wins by three or Tulane wins by three. I'm getting
five and a half. That would be a winner. Well, Tulane, Tulane drive.
all the way down the field.
We're now down to a minute 30 left, and they're facing a third and 11 at the Tulsa 19.
Touchdown pass.
Tulane's up 2114 with a minute 30 to go.
And they've made Tulsa use all of their timeouts.
So pretty good chance.
I'm in really good shape right now.
The win probability on the bet at that point would have been well into the low 90s,
certainly around 90, because, you know, Tulsa could score touchdown.
It could go to overtime, and I could lose the bet.
Tulsa drives down the field and on the last play of the game at the Tulane 37, they throw a Hail Mary into the end zone touchdown.
By the way, this came after two near picks, you know, a definite near pick on one of the throws.
And they throw the Hail Mary into the end zone and it's 2121.
I was hoping when they threw the Hail Mary, hey, why now? Let's go for two.
Let's pull. Let's pull an old riverboat Ron.
We got the momentum.
Let's accept that Tulsa was the home team, and you know Riverboat Ron's philosophy.
You go for two on the road.
You go for the tie at home.
You go for overtime at home.
So they kicked, and now we go to overtime.
So the next step for gamblers, when you have the underdog in overtime, is you want your team to be on offense first.
Because then if the other team's on offense first, they're going for the touchdown,
no matter what, because the other team's going to get the ball back.
And so they're going to probably, they're going to try their best to get seven.
And when you're getting five and a half, you need to get seven.
Yeah.
But in college, basically the way overtime works is if you win the toss, you always defer and play
defense first.
Sure.
And that, because then when you get the ball back, you know exactly what you need to win the
game or to tie the game, et cetera.
Anyway, Tulane loses.
the coin toss. I'm sorry, they win the coin toss. They defer. So I'm already sort of fucked there.
But they hold Tulsa. They hold Tulsa to a field goal. And it's 24-21. So now what I'm hoping for,
obviously, is Tulane to win the game with a touchdown or to end up turning it over or missing a
field goal. Well, they get forced to kick a field goal, but they make the field goal. Now we're headed
to double overtime.
But Tulane's going to get the ball first,
so I feel pretty good about them having the ball first.
Yeah, 24-24.
It'd be nice.
What I really love is for them to kick a field goal,
Tulsa to score a touchdown and win it 30 to 27.
Anyway, they get down to a first and goal at the Tulsa 10.
It's 24-24 at this point, second overtime.
Then it's third and goal at the Tulsa 3-yard line.
So worst case, if they don't get it in,
they're going to kick a field goal.
be up three. That means I can't lose the bet in this overtime. And the quarterback throws the ball
under pressure and it gets intercepted and returned 97 yards for a touchdown. 30 to 24 final Tulsa.
30. Just for anybody struggling with the math. That's a half a point. Tulsa won the game by six.
I was only getting five and a half. I need.
You know what? I usually do. A lot of times I do, but I'll tell you what, to be honest with you, I really thought Tulane was going to win the game. But beside the point, I made a mistake. I made a mistake. I should have bought the half point. I usually do, but I don't always buy it five and a half to six. I always buy it six and a half to seven or two and a half to three or nine and a half to ten or thirteen and a half to fourteen. But anyway, you know, it wasn't that I lost on in overtime, you know, with Tulsa scoring a touchdown.
in Tulane getting stopped. I lost on a 97-yard interception return. Tulsa scored 30 points from basically
middle of the fourth quarter through overtime after they couldn't score for the first three
and a half quarters of the game, and I lose that bet. That was painful, man. Painful loss last night.
I'm watching this dude return this thing. Just imagining you. Hold on. Here's the best part
of it. You just reminded me
of something. So before the
third and goal from the three play,
there was
like a delay. I think there was
an injury, or maybe they called a timeout,
and I flipped it over to the
Arizona-Seattle game.
Only to flip it back
to see the guy
for Tulsa that it
intercepted the ball
trucking it into the end zone. I actually
didn't catch the whole play
from the start. I just see him trucking
into the end zone and the announcer's going nuts and they're mobbing and I'm like, oh my,
no, no, no, no, no. What happened here? They just scored on defense, didn't they? Oh, Jesus,
gambling. Oh, my gosh. That was a bad. I mean, the even sicker part of this is they max up the
protection. You're watching the play. It's a three-man combination. They max the protection. They leave
an unblocked B-gap, the quarterback's got the immediate pressure in his face,
and then the backer who's supposed to be covering the back sluffs off into it.
Oh, this is cool.
You know it's so funny, like when I flipped it on.
If you had Tulsa, you were hyped.
Oh, my God, it's one of the all-time great wins,
but you don't remember the great wins as much as you remember the horrible losses.
Trust me, as someone who's bet sports forever,
it is always the bad beats that you remember more than
the glorious wins.
You know, the other...
This was multiple bad beats.
Yeah, there was...
This will lead...
This will lead Van Pelt's bad beats on Tuesday
or whenever he does that on his show.
Oh, that's a nightmare for example.
He texted me.
He texted me.
When it happened, he goes, Tulane, can you believe it?
I'm like, oh, my effing God.
You know, it's funny, the mind of a better is when you see...
the guy trucking as I flipped it over and I see all the celebration.
I'm still hanging there for a moment.
I'm incredulous as to what I believe I just picked up the tail end of.
But then you know what I'm hoping for.
I'm hoping for the flag that nobody saw.
But that never came.
It was over.
There's got to be a flag.
Come on, please a flag.
Real quickly on the game last night, the Arizona-Seattle game.
You know, you said,
something to me, no, I think you said something to me a while back about Russell Wilson,
sometimes from the pocket, not seeing the complete field. And you think he's much better at that.
And I get that. But he's obviously-
Well, I think he knows where everybody is. I think there are times that he just doesn't see it
because of his height. Sam Monson, who I actually really like from Pro Football Focus, you know,
was talking about how Russell Wilson's completion percentage is so high, in part because
he believes Wilson would rather take a sack than throwing incompletion.
And I don't know if that's true or not, but there are times when I really do watch
Russell Wilson and I think, man, why didn't he just throw it away?
And he takes a big set.
Well, I mean, I'll answer it.
Okay.
Because he doesn't ever think he's going to get sacked.
He thinks he can avoid.
Yeah.
I think I'm sure based on history and who he is.
as a player, he believes he can elude the sack.
So as opposed to throwing it away, he thinks he can get out of pocket like, what?
He does it more times than he doesn't.
He gets sacked an awful lot.
He's second right now in the league in sacked, in taking sacks.
He's had...
He always has. He's always gotten sacked a lot.
Everyone's going to sit there and tell you for seven years, they need help on the offensive line.
They keep addressing that.
There's a reason he takes sacks.
because he can't see the checkdown.
Yeah, but when he starts moving around, there's nobody better when he starts moving around
and the plays that he can make down field throwing the ball.
So they have the easiest schedule left in the NFL.
I don't know if anybody knows that.
The easiest remaining schedule in the NFL Seattle has,
which, by the way, includes three NFC East opponents in their next four games
with the Jets in between.
They play the Eagles, Giants, Jets, and Washington.
That is Seattle's next four games.
I personally don't think they're the best team in the NFC,
but they're going to be in the postseason
because they're already seven and three
and they're going to get no less than four more wins.
And they might, I think, win the division,
although I think that game with the Rams later in the year
could decide the division,
especially considering that the Rams have already beaten Seattle once.
I mean, the Rams, though, still have the Bucks.
They have the Cardinals.
They have the Patriots.
They have the Cardinals twice, actually.
So their schedule is different.
But I'm actually, I guess in part because I think that I recognized last week
that I don't think Seattle's as great as everybody else thought they were.
And I talked about it on the show with Tommy yesterday that there have been some Vegas tells on Seattle.
their odds to win the NFC championship have dropped significantly over the last couple of weeks.
I mean, they've lost three, they had lost three or four games going into last night.
But I also think that there was like some recognition that they were flawed, especially on defense.
But I guess they're getting healthier. Pete Carroll talked about that.
Carlos Hyde looked pretty good last night.
I'll tell you, what is your take on Kyler Murray right now?
Did you watch the game last night?
You probably didn't.
that thing. Yeah, you run a plane last night. So, I'll tell you, Murray's another guy. Sometimes
he's so small, I don't think he sees enough, but he's so fast, he can make plays, obviously.
Do you know, last night, one of the interesting things about that game last night is he never really
got loose as a runner. I don't even know what his numbers were. Here they are. Five carries 15 yards.
Like, he never really got loose as a scrambler or a runner.
In fact, they seem to have him pegged.
He got sack three times.
It seemed like it should have been more.
But anyway, Seattle wins here.
My take on Murray is that he can throw anywhere from a B ball to an A-plus ball.
You know what I'm saying?
An F.
He can throw some really errant and flipping throws,
and then he can make some throws that you go, wow.
So I'm good.
I think he throws with touch as well as anybody does with touch.
I would agree with you.
But if you were watching Arizona game start to finish,
you're going to see five in completion at a minimum in that game
where you go, man, I had an airmowed that.
That was a risk to throw.
I mean, there are five opportunities for a defense to make plays
every single game against Kyler Murray at this point.
Now, he makes some incredible plays with his legs, too.
And he's not just a running quarterback.
But, I mean, it's funny as you design this.
I'm surprised for Seattle doesn't do this more.
We talked about this earlier in the week, and you start to see it,
and you've seen it in colleges.
But those receivers outside, just have them sit down at zero yards out in the flat.
If your quarterback can't see the checkdown around the tackle box,
just give them an outlet outside.
Right.
I was actually, I went sort of blank there for,
I don't think Murray throws with great touch.
I think Russell Wilson throws with the best touch.
Murray can throw a touch.
I've seen Murray throw with great touch.
I don't disagree with the fact that he has touch on a ball.
I think he can throw from multiple angles.
I think he can throw with multiple velocities.
I think there's something there to him.
I just think he's a shortstop that might throw it over the first base and then said once a game.
One other quick comment from this game, you know, Isaiah Simmons, who people were raving about before the draft.
last night he looked like the guy that people were talking about.
He was all over the field in that game.
That's the first time I've watched Arizona where I've noticed that.
I'm sure an Arizona fan will tell me that he's had a couple of good games,
but he was all over the field.
And this was after, remember early in the year,
he wasn't even getting that many snaps in games.
He got benched early in the year.
I'm sorry?
He got benched early in the year before we played them.
Right. We're going to get to Washington Wins-if. We'll get to a smell test, lock of the week, and a pick. I wanted to just mention that I saw this early this morning, and as it turns out, my gut on this was correct, that it had not really been something that a lot of people in town had seen. And it was because Rivera made this statement in his weekly get-together with Cincinnati reporters. What NFL coaches do is they do their weekly
media requirements with the local media.
And then every NFL coach will do a Zoom call, or a conference call, with the opposing
teams media on Wednesday or Thursday.
I don't know what day of the week it is.
It might have been yesterday.
But anyway, I saw this late last night, early this morning.
And I thought it was very interesting because the headline was, Ron Rivera says Joe
Burrow would have been drafted by Washington, if not the Bengals.
And the quote was from Rivera, quote,
we feel like championships are won by playing good defense.
We felt pretty strongly about Chase Young.
The only other option we felt was a viable one for us was Joe Burrow,
and obviously he was taken by Cincinnati.
We think Joe is the full package.
We really do.
We think Chase is the full package.
Depending on what Cincinnati did,
that's what we were going to do, the opposite.
So, look, you would have taken Burroughs.
I would have taken Burrow.
A lot of you felt the same way that if, for whatever reason, Cincinnati, remember we did all the
hypotheticals, if Cincinnati doesn't take Burrow, would you?
And we were all like, of course.
No matter what your feeling was about Duane, everybody that I know felt even more strongly
about Burrow, except for those of you out there that said, well, wait a minute, hold on.
Duane beat Burrow out at Ohio State.
Like that was really relevant because it wasn't.
But I, so obviously, you know, there would have been some interest.
But the fact that he disclosed this now and said it and admitted it, I think is very interesting.
First of all, we now know definitively that he could and would have been allowed to take a quarterback.
Remember, there was some discussion about whether or not Dan would actually let him take a quarterback, you know, if Joe Burrow was there.
And, too, I remember, had the hip injury, and Chase Young was one of the highest evaluated defensive players in recent draft history.
So, you know, I think they probably made a really good pick in Chase Young.
But the fact that he admitted that is interesting.
Like, look, he's been, you know, all over the place in his media stuff and whatever.
I mean, we can nitpick it.
We have nitpicked it.
He's got a lot of issues going on, obviously.
but it's really, you know, an absolute, if there was any confusion with anybody,
that they just never really believed in Dwayne being their franchise quarterback moving forward.
I mean, I guess you're- Yeah, I mean, I hear what you're saying.
I think it would have been really interesting if Chase Young was having a season or he struggled,
maybe even played somewhat like Dwayne played last year, and then he came,
out and said, yeah, Jay Chung has this the full package.
He was definitely going to be the guy if they didn't take
Jay Young.
Joe's playing great right now.
I mean, I get it that they're a lot of wins, but I think Joe's doing an exceptional
job as a young quarterback.
Everyone was going to take Burrow first.
Every single team in the league would have taken Joe Burrow first.
They're just, it's so.
Well, when I say that, I mean,
single team that didn't have a top 10 quarterback would have taken Burrow, or they would have
traded the pick for immense value.
Right.
To me, the interesting hypothetical would be, in hindsight, would you take Herbert?
Yeah, but that's a hindsight thing.
I want to stick to this for a moment for a couple of reasons.
Number one.
I don't think there's enough value in it because I think it's too much of a no-brainer.
But look, dude, come on.
I mean, as much as you...
you want Duane to be great. He wasn't last year. It wasn't necessarily at Ohio State. Most people
had him in the second round. I'll bet you if Carolina went back and looked at it, I'll bet you
they had Duane in the second or third round. No, no. Rivera said that they had him as a first rounder.
But let me, let me tell you something you told me when we were doing our pre-draft conversations.
I said to you, hey, if by chance, and none of us expected to happen, it was a hypothetical,
If by chance Cincinnati said, oh my God, Chase Young's the best defensive player in decades, we're not passing on him.
And I said, if Burroughs available, would you take him?
And you said, of course, in a heartbeat.
And I said, me too.
And I said to you then, do you think they would?
And you said, probably not.
You told me probably not.
And that was not an unusual reaction for anybody playing that hypothetical game.
Because a lot of people believed in Dwayne, but more importantly, the owner believed in Dwayne.
And that's why you gave me that answer.
And that might have changed the decision for what it was when they made the decision.
If Burrow had went to number two, the owner might have said, you're going to trade it for picks.
Yeah.
But the fact that Rivera is now revealing that Burrow would have been the pick
had he been there, tells us, if he's being straight up, that Dan had no, Ron was able to do what he
wanted to do. There's more to this, too. The other part of this is, look, Ron could say,
we were going to give Duane a shot, and there was a chance Duane could be our franchise quarterback,
and that's why we gave him the first four games. But Burrow, we had evaluated really high. We would
never have passed on Burrow, and that's why I mentioned.
that I would have taken Burrow. And that's a, that's a reasonable answer, that, hey, if we have
Dwayne and we don't have another guy, we believe Dwayne could be the guy, but, but Burrow was just
at a different level from an evaluation standpoint. So we would not have passed on him. In the same way,
you know, not apples to apples, Arizona, you know, moved on from Rosen a year later for
Kyler Murray. But the, so he could, he obviously could have said that. But by revealing this,
I mean, it really is very much.
whether he meant it that way or not, it is another reveal on zero chance that Haskins is back
next year. And he knew it at the time. He knew it intuitively. He knew it deep in his soul, in his
heart, in his mind. And my only problem with that is the problem that everybody's had here
when they've gotten here, is they have felt a bit beholden to do something to please the owner
until it became obvious that it wasn't the thing to do.
And that's why I said when they benched him after four games, the whole thing was a freaking sham.
Like, you know, he knew, Scott Turner knew that this wasn't going to be their guy.
So why did they ever waste any time with it?
Why didn't they deal him in the offseason when there was a chance maybe to get a lot more
for him and just start
Kyle Allen.
And then, you know, and then on top
of that, just to take it to another
hypothetical, imagine Tua
never had the hip surgery.
And Tua was Tua
tanking for Tua.
And then Burrow really was number
two. Or maybe Tua was number
two, but it was a healthy number two.
I wonder what they would have done then.
Anyway, my point is... I wonder
what they would have done as well. And I'm not going to
guarantee you that they would have
just moved on from Duane. I'm not going to guarantee you. I would have. I know you would have,
so would have I, if Burrow had been there. But just because Ron said, we would have taken
the best quarterback prospect in the last whatever six years, doesn't actually mean that that was
a guarantee. Maybe it was. Maybe they had that conversation. The other thing that I would buy in that
conversation is if you were to want to sell the owner, Joe Burrow was one of the most of the
most hyped quarterbacks and played at an exceptionally high level in games that the owner would
have watched.
Yeah, good point.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
So it's a guy that really gets into hype about players.
Something he could sell.
Oh, you could sell Joe Burrell.
Yeah.
So, I mean, there was that.
Like, the interest, like, too, I think you could sell, too, and I think that would be
interesting.
I had Herbert been just a little bit more exciting as a prospect to me?
Herbert's the one.
I know you're not going to do the hindsight thing,
but I just don't think there's a...
It was Joe Burrow.
Yeah, I'm just reminding you,
and I could go back and find this.
I remember specifically saying,
if for whatever reason Burrow dropped the number two,
and you didn't even let me finish,
you go, I take Burrow.
And I said, I would too.
And I said, if he did, do you think they would?
And you said, I don't think so.
I understand.
Yeah.
So I think, you know, first of all, to be honest with you, this is another one of those things, really, when you think about it, and this was my last point.
He shouldn't be saying, you can say how impressed you are with Joe Burrow without admitting that you would have taken him had Cincinnati hadn't taken him.
Because, again, if you want to get any kind of compensation back for the quarterback you have, it's all about building up that quarterback.
and maybe that ship has sailed because of what they did when they benched him.
You know, he publicly knocked him and then the leaks came out,
and maybe they've already blown it on that,
and maybe the tape on Dwayne's already blown it for them on that.
But again, I just don't see the upside for Rivera in admitting this publicly.
Do you?
I don't see much of a downside because I think this one was a no-brainer.
Okay. We've already established that.
But I'm trying to establish the fact that I don't think you'd be valuing Duane by making the statement.
Okay.
So I don't need the downside to it.
Now, again, we're currently at a point where you're talking about, I get value in the draft, okay?
I truly understand it.
But we're talking about a point where you're going to have to continue to play this dumb, dumb game in the media,
to get a fifth round pick instead of a six.
Or a six round, like, the value isn't there anymore.
Okay, that's fine.
Now maybe, to your point, in the early parts of Ron Rivera's meetings with the owner
and in the early understanding of where they wanted to go
and his evaluation of Duques, he could have said,
we need to move this guy right now.
There's a chance that we could get a second for him.
A second would be absolutely huge as we get to this draft.
That may have changed things.
Also, keep in mind they didn't have a second because they had traded the second for Montez-West.
Getting into the second pre-draft may have been plausible.
I'm not 100% sure, but you could have traded Dwayne in the fifth to get to a second,
or, you know, Dwayne Plus, if that wasn't there.
But as he played through the first four games of the season,
I do think some of the film, and then obviously a lot of what surrounded it,
dictated that it wasn't there.
I mean, there might be something where another team said, look, we're willing to develop a guy.
But, and there was enough that we saw at Ohio State, and there's enough game management that we saw through 15 games in Washington or whatever, however many had that we'll give a fourth.
But you're going to need at least two of those teams to get to that point.
I don't think you're going to get it.
I don't think people really want to develop young quarterbacks.
I just don't know if there's, I don't know if there's anything you do with this situation.
So go live your life.
Go live your coaching life.
Say what you want to say.
Look, I mean, the bottom line is, of course, most people would say if Burrow was there, you draft Burrow.
Like, we all had the sense.
That really isn't the issue.
The issue is whether or not they would have.
He says they would have.
But in the moment back, you know, you've got to put yourself back into that moment.
would he have been allowed to?
Well, he's saying now he would have.
But beyond that, you know, it is the, there's more to this.
It leads to me thinking what Ron really should have done is just man up early on and tell Dan,
Dwayne's not my guy.
He's not a guy.
I have any interest in developing.
For this reason, this reason, this reason, this reason, this reason.
We need to trade him.
and more importantly, Dan, we have to make a very strong move
for the best quarterback we've evaluated in the draft in years.
We love Chase Young, and if we don't get Joe Burrow trading up to number one,
then we'll take Chase Young.
But the quarterback's more important,
and we have to be aggressive in going after Cincinnati's number one.
Like, seriously, it was as close, it was as close,
It was as close to maybe the next great one as they'll ever get.
They were one spot away.
They could have had a blockbuster package ready to go,
or maybe Cincinnati would have never dealt it,
which, by the way, would be my lien.
But I just wish somebody would come.
They might have said it doesn't matter if it's Tua or Herbert.
Right.
Could have.
But we could get X amount of things.
You know, but to your point with Rivera,
it's just funny because the common thing is when you go into,
an interview, everything's great, Kevin.
I think you're going to appreciate where I'm going
with this. Everything's great.
We love, what's your philosophy on it?
Totally aligned with you. We love that. We appreciate that.
You get the job and you go, I think
maybe we've got to move on from his quarterback.
Now that I'm here and I see it,
I said it was great, but it's not great.
But he got a job.
The other interesting thing with that is, like,
if he really knew it, was it a sure thing that
I mean, Rivera was the only interview, I think.
The Rivera was the only guy that they wanted.
I don't even think that Washington reached out to other coaches.
Marvin Lewis, they did.
I know that for a fact.
They did reach out to Marvin Lewis.
If it hadn't worked with Rivera, I think it was going to be Marvin Lewis.
But they didn't necessarily have a...
Interview him, right, because the Rivera thing went well.
They had candidate A, and then they had contingent.
And I think Marvin Lewis would have been a contingency at that point.
Agreed.
And so, look, again, I believe a huge mistake that they made, even if they did want to hire Ron Rivera,
was to not go out and interview 10 coaches and understand what they think of your team,
ask them questions about your players, ask them a lot about evaluations of Duane,
the direction that you think he would be best fitted in.
and there's just this amazing fact-finding mission that they could have went through, and they didn't.
They chose to just immediately hire Ron Rivera.
Now, maybe he was coveted by somebody else, but it sure seems like the Giants like their guy,
the Carolina likes their guy, but, you know, I mean, where else was he going to, my question at this point,
what was the true market?
Well, I think the perception at the time was that Dave Gettelman and the Giants would have been,
a spot, you know, and but who knows really? I guess, I guess to your point, it wasn't very smart,
but this isn't been a smart organization in terms of the way they operate. And so, you know,
Dan calls Joe and Joe says, come down and talk to Ron and they talks to Ron and he's got this
coach-centric idea, which, you know, like he had just discovered the cure for coronavirus. And he, you know,
wishes everybody a happy Thanksgiving, and he turns it over to somebody where he can say,
you know, we're going to change the culture because that was Bruce's fault.
And we got a new guy here who's a culture guy.
Let's go.
I don't know.
Personally, the net of this is I don't see any upside in Ron Rivera admitting whether he could or couldn't do it that they would have taken Joe Burrow.
Because it is whether he believes it or not, or whether he intended it or not, it's a shot at
Dwayne again. I just don't see an upside
in that. I mean, think about it. It's
really a shot at him because, you know,
Burrow was an Ohio State guy. He beat
Burrow out, you know? Like, there was
talk about that before the draft.
It just seems like the knocks
on Dwayne, whether
subtle or intended or not
intended, they just sort of keep
coming. And I don't
really understand the upside in that.
I would have just said about Joe
Burrow, he's really good.
We're so impressed.
He's terrific.
Yeah, I think that you don't have to reveal more than that.
I'm with you.
My only argument would be I don't see a real downside to say we would have taken this guy.
Okay.
Let's get to Washington Beats the Bengals if our keys to the game right after this word from one of our sponsors.
All right.
Let's get to Washington beats Cincinnati.
If you kick it off, don't throw it back to me.
You kick it off, please.
They outplay another bad team.
No, seriously.
The Bengals are not a good defense.
I haven't been impressed with Cincinnati's defense.
They give up almost 27 points a game.
They consistently give up points to everyone they play.
They give up points with the run game and the past game.
They're a balanced mess defense.
And so I think offensively you control the ball, you control the clock.
you stay and keep within balance offensively,
and you outplay what I think is another pretty bad team.
I know that's not really cliche,
but...
This is going to be quick this week, I can tell.
I mean, what do you want to do?
We're talking about four collective wins between the two,
or did the Bengals have one win?
The Bengals have two wins.
You know what I'm saying?
They're two, five, and one.
They tied the Eagles, yeah.
Oh, yeah, they did that to tie.
So, I mean, you outplay a team that I think you're better than.
It is one, and especially I think you have to get it done on offense.
So my first one is, you know, obviously, I mean, this has been a team whose losses totally fit in to the cliche answers.
They're minus six in the turnover margin in the three games that they've lost, you know.
So you can't be that.
You can't keep inflicting damage in slapping yourself in the face,
especially in the midst of being a very efficient offensive football team.
In their last four games, Washington's offense ranks sixth overall in yards per game.
First on third downs, right?
I knew their conversion percentage was high.
It's over 50%.
Their number one in the league on one of the most important,
statistics in terms of how it relates to winning a football game, third down conversions
over the last four games.
They're eighth in time of possession.
And we know that the teams they have faced aren't as good as the teams that Dwayne faced
or the team faced early in the year.
But still, they are moving the football and the results of moving this football the way
they have in sort of very efficient and borderline dominant fashion in terms of moving.
moving the football, not necessarily scoring points, should result in more points.
But the reason it hasn't is the field goal kickers miss field goals, and they've turned the
ball over as they have been moving into scoring territory.
And they took a sack last week that amazingly, after first and 10 at the Detroit 16 yard line,
they ended up out of field goal range.
Actually, in field goal range for most teams, but for Ron on Sunday with his kicker out of field
goal range. So the bottom line is they have to avoid these self-inflicted, you know,
mistakes and damage, because if they can avoid that, they're going to be a very productive
offensive team, and they're going to score a lot of points, especially against Cincinnati,
to your point, it's not a good defensive team. In the same way that they've moved the ball
against Detroit, New York, and Dallas, which, you know, I don't even count as a team the day,
they faced them, they should be able to put up a lot of points.
Now, they could get outscored by Cincinnati,
but I think the key is just to avoid as much as possible
the things that have kept them from scoring a lot more points the last four games.
Let's face it, they scored 27 last week,
and it should have been no less than 33.
You know, and it should and really could have been as much as 40, you know, or 34 or 37.
They could have that kind of offensive production in terms of the ability to score.
Same thing with the Giants, you know.
They moved the football and you had five turnovers in the game.
You can't have five turnovers in a game.
And they still scored 20 in a game in which they had five turnovers.
Anyway, the point number one is limit the, the, the, the, the,
mistakes, turnovers, misfield goals, sacks knocking you out of scoring range, because you're
doing all of the other things that should lead to big offensive days really well, and you should
be able to do that Sunday against Cincinnati. Yeah, that's how you out play a bad football team.
You limit mistakes. You pay attention to detail. We talk about you. I mean, we talked about this
earlier this week or last week. A lot of your young players, you've got to start focusing on ball security
in practice.
Doesn't make that a point.
I mean, I think everybody understands that Alex, the guy that, Alex is the guy that
knows how to manage a game, and by that, I mean, he'd rather throw in completion than
throw interceptions.
That's clearly Alex Smith, and I don't think you necessarily worry about it in that
situation, but you can't have Terry McLaurin and Stevenson and Gibson and a lot of,
McKissick has fumbled in the last couple weeks, and you can't afford these fumbles and
these in an internal.
I think that's part of beating a bad football team.
My second point to this, Kev, is you've got to force Burroughs to throw in completions
in this ballgame.
To me, he's a guy that's not, like, the Bengals are not a big playoff.
Now, they have some good weapons.
I mean, they still have AJ Green.
Boyd's having a really good year.
And Cincinnati is a team.
T. Higgins, T. Higgins looks like a star.
Now, he missed practice yesterday.
in the illness. It would be nice to see him out.
Yeah, Boyd's a big-time player,
and AJ Green can still make plays.
I don't see Cincinnati as a dynamic rush offense.
I think when you look at the Bengals,
they're pretty average in terms of running the football,
and I think our front should be able to manage them.
So to me, as much as you can on first and second down situation,
you can't let Joe Burrow get seven, eight, nine-yard games.
You can't let him get that intermediate.
range going and get into a rhythm with some of his really good receivers. I think, you know,
to me, I would press him, I would challenge him, I would try to disrupt the timing of Burrow.
And I think if you can do that, he's a guy that you can get after as a pass rush. So force
incompletions. And I would basically put it to this. If you hold Burrow under 60% passing,
I think you're going to win the game.
Kime had this stat that right now, the last
four weeks. Quarterbacks have thrown the ball on average of 2.52 seconds against Washington's
defense. Only two teams have faced faster releases in that time, which tells you that the teams
are playing. I mean, Stafford, obviously, and Daniel Jones. I mean, take the Dallas game out of the
equation, but that counted. But anyway, the point is they're getting it out quickly, which is why
you're not seeing, and one of the reasons you're not seeing a lot of sacks. You know, a lot of people
are very hung up on, where are all the sacks from Chase Young and Montez Sweat and John Allen and
Duran Payne? Well, the quarterbacks are getting the ball out of the hands, their hands very quickly.
Burrow is a really good extend the play quarterback, and he's made a lot of his big plays extending the
play. Part of that, too, is led to a lot of sacks. He's the third most sacked quarterback in the
league in terms of numbers, second most sacked in terms of average number of sacks taken.
in a game. Now, to be fair, the Bengals have played some pretty good defensive teams during the
course of the year. They played the Steelers. They played the Titans. They played the Colts. They
played the Ravens. They played the Eagles. They played some really good defensive teams this
year. I think Washington's a good defensive team. We obviously, over the last two weeks,
have a different impression, you know, of their ability to stop the run, which has been a problem.
some of the, you know, as we discussed, you know, yesterday or Wednesday, you going through the whole last sequence and that terrible last play at the 50 yard line.
But you've got to get to burrow.
And you can't let him extend because if he does extend, they're going to have a problem covering because they do have weapons.
And you're going to end up in a shootout where if you end up with more turnovers, you're going to lose the game.
Because you're going to have to score and you're going to have to keep the ball away.
from Burrow. But when Burrow has it, you've got to get after him, man. And if you get after him
and he escapes, then Higgins and Boyd and Green are going to make big plays down the field.
Big plays. No, I love that stat. I completely agree with you. And it's been interesting because
Del Rio's really mixed and matched coverages and blitzes and fronts. And they've really tried to get after
teams in the last couple weeks with some of these blitz looks.
The thing is, is they're playing zone behind it.
He's a zone blitz guy.
And some of the zone behind it has been poor, to say the least.
So I think this potentially is a week where, like I suggested before you brought that up,
you get up and you start pressing at challenging receivers.
And I think you've got corners that can place a man-to-man stuff.
And maybe this is a two-man type of week where you believe your front-fold.
can get to the quarterback and you play two-man and maybe even bracket Higgins with the safety at
time or play two men where both your safeties are essentially helping on their two big receivers.
And so it's not even necessarily just two men.
It's like a man where you're in and outing their two big-time players.
And you're saying you're not going to beat us in rhythm.
You're going to have to extend.
We're going to help on the biggest players.
And we believe in our front floor collapsing the pocket and getting to burrow.
I mean, he's been sacked 32 times this year.
Like you said, it's second in the league.
They have the second month sack yard has given up,
and they are not a big playoff.
I think they only have three plays in the year of 40 yards plus downfield,
which is obviously not a big time number.
They're seventh in the league and 20 plus yard plays down the field.
Again, not a big number.
So your theory is, your thought process,
let's trust our guys to play and jam and trust the fact that Joe Burrell wants to get the ball out early.
And everybody that they've watched over the last three weeks on film is beating zone coverage by getting the ball out early.
So let's make that change defensively.
The last one for me, other than the obvious, like the kicker doesn't miss any more kicks,
but that was sort of the self-inflicted damage.
I said last week about Detroit that they don't rank very, they rank pretty low in rush defense like the Cowboys had.
And I think Scott Turner has really attacked things that they think they can attack.
But I mentioned last week it may be a little bit misleading with Detroit because they have been very effective against the run in some games,
but they've given up a lot of yards and others, which can really skew the average.
Well, Cincinnati's the same.
Cincinnati's ranked near the bottom in rush defense again, which, you know, for those that want Washington to be, you know, a team that runs the football.
is physical and plays slob knocker football. And, you know, Cincinnati's like 28th, I think,
against the rush, something like that. Dallas is, you know, last or second to last in Detroit was there.
What is Cincinnati's 29th? Okay. I knew it was low. So, but if you look at their games,
which I went back and looked at some of them, like last week against Pittsburgh on an exceptionally
windy day, Pittsburgh 20 carries 44 yards, 2.2 yards.
yards per carry. They had another
good, they gave up
a bunch of yards to Derek Henry.
But against, I think
it was the Colts, they only gave up,
you know, 15 carries 59 yards.
So last week, you know, Scott Turner
really, part of it is they got behind
and they ended up throwing the ball 55 times,
as we know. My point
here on the last thing, Washington
wins if, don't get
hung up on
ratio, run to pass.
ratio. I think we've seen that this team with Kyle Allen and with Alex Smith and with some of the
quick passing concept concepts with some of using the checkdown, using bubbles, using run extension
throws. Also with Alex last week, getting the ball down the field. He threw it 55 times and they
almost won the game. They didn't win the game. I understand that. But they were on the verge of
potentially winning the game if they didn't give up a ridiculous last drive. Against the Giants in the
Meadowlands, Kyle Allen threw the ball 42 times, and they nearly, you know, they had a chance with a two-point conversion or if they kicked to win the game.
I would not get hung up on looking at Cincinnati's rush defense. We're not a rush team. You know, against Dallas, everybody's been running the ball against Dallas.
But I don't care how they move the football, coolly. I don't care if Alex Smith ends up being this week, 31 of 45.
for 292 or 307, as long as their third down conversions are 8 for 15 again, or 9 for 16.
To me, to me, I don't care about the balance.
I want the sticks moved.
Okay.
I think you can move with the team with offense balance.
Yeah, no, I hear you.
You've got to control the ball and offense.
That's what you're suggesting.
I suggest the balance.
You just said control the ball and often.
However, it works. Last week, it worked by throwing the football.
It worked against the Giants the first time throwing the football.
If they think they can, if it works running the football, great.
But I would not look at Cincinnati's rush defense number and say that it's going to be easy to run the football against them.
They give them five yards that carry is a thing.
Yeah, it's because a couple of people have had big games against them.
We don't have Derek Henry.
We don't have a total yard.
Well, you can run it on them.
I don't know.
You have anything else?
No.
I'm actually excited to watch the game, to be honest with you, in part because I haven't watched a lot of games with Joe Burrow.
So I'm excited to watch this game.
I'll be really excited to watch this film afterwards with Burrow.
Normally I have a little bit more time to watch some film on some of the opposing teams with traveling and everything this week.
I didn't get to watch much of Cincinnati.
All right.
Well, let's do a smell test lock of the week right after this word from one of our sponsors.
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All right.
I have, wow, a smell test
coolly that I'm just going for it this week.
Can I pick my lock of the week before you do your smell test?
Sure, yeah, let's change it up.
Maybe it'll be for better luck for me.
What was your lock of the week last week?
I forget.
I think it was Washington.
It was a bad pick.
I had a good feeling.
I just, I think that they were,
they should have covered.
They were better than Detroit.
All right, give me your lock of the week.
So this is just from something I heard.
It's not sharp money or anything.
And I normally don't pick college football, but I have a tie to this game enough that I would feel uncomfortable betting on it.
Louisville is a two and six football team.
They're playing Syracuse, a one in seven football team.
Great game to watch, Jeff.
great game to watch. Louisville is an 18 and a half point favorite right now.
That's a big numbers for a two and six football team, even though they're playing a one in seven football team.
Syracuse is terrible. They just are. They're terrible. They're on like their fourth quarterback.
They cannot really score offensively. They give up points. Louisville actually can score. They've been in some ball games.
They smoked Florida State.
Louisville's going to dominate this game. I think Syracuse is a bad football team.
really bad football team.
I feel like I wanted to go first
because so many times you pick all these games
and then I just got to pick my
lock of the week off of your smell test
and I'm just following you.
And so I wanted to be bold with this one.
I don't know if it's in your spell test or not,
but I see Louisville, an 18 and a half
favorite,
winning this game in a landslide
at 7 o'clock tonight, tomorrow night.
Whatever day you're watching this.
No, it's tonight.
It's an early pick. You know why.
You know why I know that.
Because it's in your smell test.
Of course.
It's the first game.
That's why I wanted to go first.
I feel so strong about this game.
The best part about this is Syracuse actually played one of their best games of the week last week and covered against BC, who the week before almost beat Clemson in Death Valley.
Now, Trevor Lawrence didn't play in that game.
But the line is way too big.
And the public's playing Syracuse.
So yes, my first smell test play is.
Louisville laying the 18 and a half tonight on a Friday night game against Syracuse,
who you know is terrible. I've got another Friday night game for you, two Friday night games.
Minnesota is a terrible team and Purdue's decent and Purdue's laying two on the road to Minnesota.
Give me Minnesota tonight plus the two at home. Let's go to Saturday. I got a lot of games,
So I'm going to rip through these fairly quickly.
New Mexico, somebody told me.
You're going Lobo?
New Mexico, somebody told me, is a major, you know, anti-public play against Air Force.
But more than that, this person told me New Mexico's not a terrible team and nobody knows it yet.
And I started looking at it.
I'm like, all right, they lost the Nevada by 7.
They lost at Hawaii by 6.
they've covered their last two.
They covered, they almost covered against San Jose State.
Whatever.
I got New Mexico plus 18 tonight or tomorrow.
That game is tomorrow.
That game is tomorrow.
Great analysis.
You're doing too much analysis.
Way too much analysis.
Nebraska should not be a 15.5 point favorite over Illinois.
I'll take Nebraska late 15 and a half.
UCF, this is probably going to be a big mistake.
They're getting five and a half against Cincinnati tomorrow.
Man, every time I go against Cincinnati, it doesn't work out.
I'm going to do it one more time.
The public's all over the seventh ranked undefeated seven and no bear cats.
I'll take UCF plus five and a half at home.
UCLA plus 17 at Oregon.
Virginia Tech, I've been on them a bunch this year.
And the public's on the other side again against a.
I'll take them laying three at Pitt.
Oklahoma State's the anti-public side against Oklahoma.
There's a lot of sharp money on Oklahoma State as well,
plus seven in the Bedlam game at Oklahoma.
Man, you know, Auburn, their last outing,
they absolutely demolished LSU.
Tennessee with that Jeremy Pruitt, man.
I don't get it, man.
Tennessee can't score, and yet they're only getting 11.
The public's all over Auburn.
I'll take Tennessee on a flyer plus 11.
I've gone against Liberty, and it has not worked out.
They are 22nd ranked in the country, 8 and 0.
NC states laying 3.5 against them.
I'll take the Wolf Pack.
Actually, it's 3, not 3.5, excuse me.
Washington minus 11 against Arizona.
USC minus 2.5 at Utah.
Stanford minus 3 against Washington State.
And Hawaii for the first time this year makes the smell,
smell test, if you're really in trouble based on my earlier picks, you can take the rainbows plus two
touchdowns in one of my favorite movies and one of my favorite references of all time, Vince Vaughn
and in the dilemma. The dilemma, the intervention scene in the dilemma is one of the funniest
scenes of all time when they are talking about betting Hawaii means you've got a gambling problem.
When every year you're up late at night and you bet the Hawaii game, you've got a gambling problem.
Let's go to Sunday.
I like Washington.
The public's on Cincinnati.
They like Joe Burrow in Washington's favorite.
I like Washington laying a point.
New England's effort Sunday night against Baltimore was one of my favorites of the year.
They are laying a short number at Houston.
I'll take the Texans plus two.
I've been right on Minnesota five times this year, Cooley, either betting against them or on them.
I'm 5-0.
I had the Vikings for the first time when they played Tennessee.
They were getting three.
They lost by one and covered.
I had them against Houston as a three-and-a-half-point dog, they won outright.
I had them as a six-and-a-half-point dog at Seattle.
They should have won outright.
They lost by a point.
I had Atlanta against Minnesota when the Vikings were a three-and-a-half-point favorite, Atlanta won big.
Then I came back and I had the Vikings plus, I think, five and a half or plus six at Lambo.
and they won that game, they won it outright.
They are laying seven to the Cowboys,
and the world is on Minnesota this week.
I like Dallas plus the seven.
I don't know if they win the game,
but Dallas was good enough against Pittsburgh
with Garrett Gilbert.
They get Dalton back.
I said to Tommy yesterday,
I have a feeling Dallas is going to play better here
the next few weeks, maybe even on Thanksgiving Day.
Dallas plus seven against Minnesota.
I love Indy this week,
laying two at home against Green Bay.
Anytime you get Aaron Rogers as an underdog, the public's going to love that side.
I'll take Indy minus the two.
And then I like the Eagles plus the three.
The public's on Cleveland.
The Eagles, everybody thinks is part of the stinky NFC East.
I just gave you, by the way, three NFC East teams in the smell test.
Washington, Philly, and Dallas.
That should frighten you.
As always, this is for
entertainment purposes only. Tread lightly, but the smell test has Minnesota and Louisville tonight,
New Mexico, Nebraska, UCF, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, NC State, Washington,
Southern Cal, Stanford, and Hawaii tomorrow. And then the skins, the Texans, the Eagles,
the Cowboys, and the Colts on Sunday. There you go. Cooley's Lockwood. Could I ask you a question?
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, go ahead.
No, were you going to ask me, am I going to bet all these?
Well, let me ask you three questions.
First question.
Do you think some of this COVID stuff is affecting the actual betting on games?
Like, more people are betting in a certain direction for a certain reason.
There's less unknown to a lot of it.
Because this year is some really interesting lines throughout the year.
and some big public place.
You've had more smell test picks than really ever before.
You think that there's an impact of some of the COVID stuff on it.
Well, I have no idea whether or not it's been a help or a hindrance to the better or to the house.
I can tell you the better's had a decent year this year so far.
But one thing is for sure.
The amount of gambling on sports during the pandemic has gone up significantly.
Then do you think, well, it's also that betting's legal.
Do you think the significant legal betting going up
has impacted somehow the outcome of the lines?
No.
I mean, there's something different about this year.
No.
It feels different.
I don't see anything different in like the spreads.
I think it's been harder for Vegas because you don't know, you know,
you're putting lines out there with the risk that key players are going to be out.
And then, by the way, the games are going to be postponed,
which has happened a lot, but that just voids the bet.
The worst is when somebody, you know, makes a big wager on, let's just say Louisville,
because we want them to win.
And they got them at 17.5. 18 when the line opened up.
And then Syracuse ruled out six people due to COVID, but they're going to play the game anyway.
And you had big wagers at 17 and a half 18.
Now they bumped the line up to 19, 19, and a half 20.
And, you know, they win by 20.
you know, they win by 19, but your big money came in early.
I mean, some of those things can happen.
I mean, but there's just as much risk that the better is going to be on the wrong side of that as there is the house.
Yeah, sure.
Anyway.
What are you going to do while this goes on?
Check scores afterwards.
You know, you match this number of games.
I mean, normally, if I were going to bet games, which I don't do, I would do it because it creates entertainment in a reason to watch the game.
You just seem like you have a problem.
No, so that's a really good question.
What's been really interesting about this year, like college football, because it's been so weird and so many games have been postponed and so many teams have played a lot of games and other teams have played so few and it's just not seeming like a real season.
I haven't watched as much college football.
So even like, I mean, I can tell you that there have been multiple Saturdays, especially earlier when it was warmer, where I was just out playing golf.
And I'd be checking my phone to see the scores.
but, you know, whatever.
I wasn't sitting there, you know, for 15 straight hours watching games.
I haven't done that once on a Saturday this year.
Sunday, obviously, is a, you know, that's because our team is playing,
and it's a big part of, you know, what we do, what I do certainly.
So I'm sitting there Sunday from 1 o'clock until, you know, 11, 15, the night game is over.
But no, the college football fan that I am year in and year out,
it's been a totally different consumption pattern this year for me.
I've watched so much less.
Do you know, like, tomorrow at 3.30?
You know, usually the big SEC game of the week, Spotlight 330, CBS, you know, tomorrow.
Right.
Because of all the SEC games that have been canceled for this weekend,
do you know, CBS tomorrow at 3.30 in the afternoon on CBS, there's not an SEC game.
they're showing at 3.30 on CBS, they are showing San Diego State at Nevada.
That's how sad this season's been and weird, because so many SEC games have been canceled.
I mean, this weekend, I'm looking at Ole Miss, Texas, A&M was supposed to be that game, and it got canceled.
So anyway, what else do we have?
Prediction on the game. Give me a final score.
I think this looks like a 24-21 game for Washington.
I got Washington 20s.
I don't like that, though.
Okay.
Hold on, hold on.
I don't like that because I think Cincinnati gets at least a field goal in this game.
So somehow Cincinnati's going to get to, it's 24-20.
Two-field goals, Cincinnati, 24-20.
You know, Seattle ended up with 28 last night,
but they did not get to 28 the normal way.
They had a safety in the game.
They had a missed extra point in the game.
And then they had a couple of field goals in the game.
Jason Myers kicked a few field goals.
It was a weird way to get to 28.
Sometimes you can get to 21 like you just described,
and there could have been a couple of field goals in there.
Anyway, I got 2720 Washington.
I think they have an error-free day,
and that leads to a win in sort of a fast.
moving game where both teams move the ball and score, but Washington ends up winning 2720.
And then we'll get ready for a Thanksgiving Day game, which would have, you know, some meaning in the NFC East.
Anyway, that's it for the day. Enjoy your time back in Northern Virginia. Call me a little bit later on and we'll figure out of time to get together or not.
Sweetness.
