The Kevin Sheehan Show - Washington's Worst Season Ever?

Episode Date: December 5, 2023

Kevin and Thom today on whether or not this 2023 Washington Commanders season has a chance to go down as the franchise's worst-ever. Plenty on Ron Rivera, Sam Howell, Jon Allen, Eric Bieniemy, Monday Night Football, and the College Football Playoff exclusion of Florida State.  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. Tommy's here. I am here. The podcast is presented by Windonation.

Call them at 86690 Nation or go to Windonation.com to take advantage of one of their best offers of the year. Tommy sends me his column every time he writes one, and especially before the podcast. And I just read it because it's just, it's very easy to read. And this was a good one because I opened up the show yesterday with that Tunga, I'm sorry, with the Tua Tunga Viloa sound bite about all the fans support, the Miami Dolphin fan support on what was fan appreciation day. I had no idea before reading your column that part of fan appreciation. Day. It was also

HBC Unite, Pride Night, Jewish Heritage it was a Jewish Heritage pregame event, and you wrote, but even after papering the house with a rainbow coalition of hometown fans, it still wasn't

enough to keep Miami Dolphins fans from taking over the stadium. And then Tommy writes, on its social media platform, the team had boasted of heading for another sellout at FedEx Field. Here's a suggestion to new owner Josh Harris. If your sellouts are driven by a majority of opposing team fans, it's nothing to brag about. That's a Dan Snyder move.

Were you there Sunday? Yeah, I was at the game. It was every time I think I can't be surprised or overwhelmed by the presence of opposing fans, they surprised me. I mean, it's It was just stunning. There was Aqua everywhere. Here's the best story. Teal, I mean, whatever they're coloring. Here's the best story. They do some kind of promotion, some kind of name that tune contest, okay, during the game,

and then a person who gets it somehow on social media, they bring them on the field. Oh, it's a dog. And they announce them and introduce them to the stands. Well, they brought two dolphin fans on the field. Oh, my God. They didn't. Yes, they had to, they covered, they covered one, one of them was wearing a Dolphins jersey. They put a Reds, a commander's jersey over him, but he still had teal pants on.

The other guy had teal pants on. They were clear there was teal under what they were wearing. They couldn't even find, I mean, if one thing, they couldn't find somebody to win the contest who was the commander's fan. The second thing was they didn't have the sense of mind of saying, we can't put these guys down the field. Right. It's one thing if they won that thing fair and square, but you don't bring them down and put them on the big screen. You can't do that. Like nobody was going to notice their keel pants. Oh, man. That's how bad it was. It was just stunning. And I think like the commanders fans who were there, I think they just gave up. Before the game even started, they just looked around them and they said, oh, my God.

Well, it didn't take long. If they didn't give up before it started, it didn't take long. It was the third play from scrimmage. No, it didn't. The Tyree kills matched up in man coverage with Juan Martin. That was brilliant. Oh, my God. Yeah, it was.

So it's actually a good segue into what I want to talk about here in the opening segment. And I kind of stumbled into this on the radio show today. And I forget what I was talking about that got me into it. But I started to realize, oh, I know it got me started. I think what's really amazing, and I shouldn't be amazed by this because one of my hallmark annual things is to say, this is week to week this NFL. You can't figure it out. But before this season started, I just didn't think that the floor was. this low. I had

7 and 10 as being worst case, 10 and 7 being best case. And of course, why? Well, because the defense was going to be so good. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And so, you know, it's... I'm with you. I didn't think they'd be this bad. So I mean,

look, I'm wrong a lot. And you know, anybody that sits here and talks about the NFL in particular is wrong a lot. But man, this season is so much worse. than I thought it could be. And, you know, it brings a lot of things into the conversation.

It brings into, well, we know the coaching staff. We know they're gone. But, you know, one of my big, you know, another completely wrong take after last season was, you know what I know about this football team now is they finally have a roster that's actually pretty good. It's pretty decent. Now, we don't know about a quarterback, and you've got to get a quarterback. and their offensive line issues and their linebacker issues, but you got to love that defensive line.

You got to love the development of the secondary. The playmakers on offense, it may be the best they've been rosterized, not counting quarterback, for a long time. Dead wrong. Clearly, that's got to have something to do with this season. It's not all Ron and Jack's fault. The other part real quickly before I get...

Ron put the roster together. Yes, but yes. No, that's true, of course, because Ron put the roster together. I'm just saying in terms of it's players and coaches, but you're right, Ron put the roster together, of course. But, oh, shit, what was I going to say? Anyway, it got me to thinking about this season, and there are so many to choose from, obviously, in terms of the worst seasons ever.

but this is in the running. And in fact, it may be near the top of the worst seasons ever. I'm not going to say this is the worst team ever, but we're in the midst of one of the worst seasons ever. And I would say that because look at the last two games. When have they been outscored in back-to-back weeks 90 to 25? I mean, in truth, Sunday, and I said this yesterday, Miami could have scored 60 if they had wanted to.

That's why this whole notion of Ron talking about two plays after the game. I mean, you talk about delusional. And he really didn't necessarily back off that in his presser yesterday, although he said a couple of beauties during the presser yesterday, which we'll get to. But more than just, you know, 45 to 10 and 45 to 15, this season has included losses to the winless bears at the time, right? weren't they winless or close to winless? No, they were winless. Yeah.

And they didn't just lose to them. They lost to them 40 to 20. They lost to the Giants twice. A team that when they played them the first time looked like they were trying to lose. And the second time had Tommy DeVito at quarterback. Those three lost, and I'm not even bringing up, the absolute bludgeoning they took at the hands of Buffalo. in week three, when Sam threw like 17 interceptions and got sacked 100 times in the game.

I mean, and they never adjusted at all. I mentioned in my column that I don't think, I mean, I'm going to even back to the Jim Zorn era. I don't think they've ever had, in recent memory, three games like they've had to pass three, a total of 121 and 44 defeats in points scored. in those three games, not even in the gyms or an error, that they have a three-game stretch that bad. And to your point about the feeling that this feels like such a horrible season, maybe one of the worst, think of the fan base as a human body, okay?

And think of 1993, the first year that Richie coached. You're two years removed from the Super Bowl. You're one year from Joe Gibbs, making a playoff in its last year, winning a playoff game against Minnesota, and given the 49ers all they could handle in that game. Okay? So you're not that far removed from winning. Then you have the, what was it? Was it 3 and 13 in Richie's year?

Richie was 4 and 12. 4 and 12. Okay. You have the 4 and 12th season. That was a shock. So that's like a punch to the gut. Right. But that's the first punch, okay, to the gut.

Now here we are 30 years later. and you've been taking punches to the gut and to the face and to the nuts and everywhere on your body for 30 years. So, yeah, another punch now hurts a lot more than it did maybe 10 years ago when you hadn't accumulated so much damage or 20 years ago. You've been, your body is one sore oozing pus. And you can't afford even a neck, even a paper cut. And this is like a knife in your heart again. Yeah, but there's one big difference now. And that is that the guy, the abuser, is gone.

And there is, there's this feeling that a, healing process will begin when this season ends. We haven't, you know, 2009, that Zorn season, 2013, 2019, you know, some of these horrific seasons that ended horrifically, you were still stuck with, well, this guy's going to punch the shit out of me next year, too. So at least you have that. I know, but here's what makes it worse. there's somebody there to basically make all the wounds better,

but you're still waiting in the waiting room, okay? You're in a hospital waiting room, and you desperately need to be seen. But it's not your time yet. That guy's not ready to see you yet. When the season ends, this is why I've said for a couple games, if it was up to commanders fans, they would have ended the season yesterday and gotten on with the business that needs to be done. Yeah, but again, it doesn't matter. There's nothing that can be done. In fact, I had Randy Mueller was on with me today. Actually, it wasn't Randy who made this point. Sorry, John Kime, because it was John Kime who made this point. John said, you know, one of the reasons you don't fire Ron, if that's what you were suggesting, Tommy. One of the reasons you don't do it is that everybody's watching around the league to see how this gets handled.

you don't want to come off as Snyder-esque. You don't want to come off as breaking a promise, which was apparently a promise at the beginning of the year, to give, you know, this group, this season, and then to evaluate everything at the end of the year. You don't want to limit your potential audience to hire from. You know, that's what Dan did with his actions over a long period of time. You don't want to fire the head coach now, but what I mean is literally, if you put it to a vote for commanders fans, knowing that when the season ends, change will happen. Yeah. You know, they would just as soon end the season today.

Yeah, you don't get to see four more games as Sam Howl. You've got to live with the 13 that you've seen. I think people can live with that. I think, though, look, you've written books about this organization. They're available on Amazon. I think we could in four weeks or five weeks with this by week, I think we may look at 2023 as an all-time worst season because I think there's a really good chance. A, they're going to end up with 13 losses, okay, which would match the most losses in franchise

history. They lost 13 in Norv's first year, which was okay. You were at the beginning of a rebuild. Right. You lost 13 at the end of the, in the Shanahan. final year and you lost 13 in 2019. Funny thing about that 2019 season is they actually, once Gruden was gone, they actually played a little bit better now that, you know, the lame duck situation

had ended and everybody knew there would be a new coach in 2020. And old coach Callahan was giving us his 30-minute responses in press conferences. Oh, yeah. But, you know, Andy was listening. Andy said the 61 season is without question the worst season. Now, this is well before my time, but you've written books about this stuff. I went back and looked at the 61 season. They were 112 and 1.

So it's the fewest number of wins ever. And they tied the Cowboys. I guess that was the Cowboys inaugural season, 61? Yes, it was. Right? Or it was 60. No, it was 61. Okay.

No, you're wrong. It was 60. 60 was their first season. Really? Yeah. 61 was their second season. and Washington tied Dallas and they beat Dallas. That was their only win and their only tie that year.

But keeping it in more modern era football, like in the Super Bowl era, I guess, the pedibone season is a good one because it was jarring. It was like, oh, my God, how do people deal with this? We hadn't dealt with it in decades. and there were some terrible losses, including one of the worst NFL regular season games in history when they lost to the Jets on a Saturday afternoon 3 to nothing. Remember that? That was horrific.

One of the worst games ever played in the regular season of the NFL. But I still don't consider that to be the Zorn season, the swinging gate game at the end against the Giants, followed up by a shutout loss to the NFL. Cowboys, that was pretty bad. 2013, the end of, you know, the only difference is that 2013, Shanahan had said, I've seen enough of RG3, and he put Rex in, and they actually were competitive in their final three games. You know, they almost beat Atlanta, Dallas, and then on like,

you know, the final game of the year in like eight-degree weather they lost to the Giants. But they were, we didn't have to watch. Remember the Chiefs game. was the last game Robert played for Shanahan, and that was the game in which the stadium, there's that famous shot of the field covered in snow, and nobody in the stands at halftime. No one was there. Everybody had left.

They lost that game 45 to 10, just like these last two games, 45 to 10, 45 to 15. This season, after they finish off with the Rams, the Jets, the 49ers, my God, what will Kyle do to this team? The Cowboys, if they've got to win. Everything he can. Yeah, but he'll do everything he can. But Dan's not here anymore. For Tread Williams, for Tread, that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter.

You can easily look past that. And remember that, you know, I think Kyle, I think Tred, I think Chase Young, this will be, that will be, that will be inflict the damage game. It inflict serious damage. Yeah, and they are so good. Yes. So do you agree with me? Do you think this has a chance to be up there on the list of the worst seasons in franchise history? Well, I think it feels that way, only because of my theory,

that you've sustained so many wounds that every single wound hurts, and this is among the worst of the other ones. this is like taking a beating, you know, for 30 plus years. And then, you know, just when you think maybe, you know, it's going to stop, it's starting all over again. So I think it's a cumulative effect that makes it feel worse. So the development of Sam Howe doesn't make it feel a little bit better? I'm sure it does for the geeks out there who were convinced before opening day

that he was the quarterback of the future. Yeah. He's going on the record books, all right. This from Jeffrey. Kevin, so much for your take that Ron's teams don't quit. They've been outscored 90 to 25 the last two games, as you said. It could have been much worse on Sunday, if not for Mike McDaniels' mercy. Tommy doesn't think that Kyle will show us much mercy.

This team is done. They've so quit, and I'm happy about it. It confirms that Ron is, gone. Well, we knew that before. And it improves their chances to get a legit high-ceiling QB in the draft. Keep the quitting coming. Thank you, Jeffrey. You can tweet me at Kevin Sheehan, D.C. or follow me on Twitter at Tom LeVarro on Twitter. And you can also send an email to the show through the Kevin Sheehan Show.com website. You know, yeah, this team is done. is no three-game winning streak and some big upset win to come here at the end of the year for

Ron Rivera, which has really been something consistent throughout his career as a head coach. He's got, and I did this a few weeks ago, he's got like a 61.7% or a 617 winning percentage over his final six games during his career. If you take the COVID year out, this one's not going to help that winning percentage. They're going to lose out here. I'm pretty sure. And I think it is important, and I'm not with the team, you know, all the time. I'm only there in the locker room on Sundays after home game losses. So I don't really want to speak too much what the locker room feels like. But I don't think they've quit on Ron. I think they've quit on the season. I agree with that. Yes, I agree with that.

yeah I think it's two two different things I mean I think but I do think they have quit on the season I mean Terry McClorin says after he didn't get catches a pass on Sunday now that's okay I ran a lot of cardio yeah it happened

got good cardio in you know yeah and at the end of it he says I'm not going to quit just because I'm frustrated well no one asked him if he was going to quit well you also you also so and Jonathan Allen comments, you know, he's looking for travel agents. So, uh, I think they have, I don't, I don't, I think they have quit on the season. I think they have a sense of helplessness and hopelessness

right now. But I don't think they're in the locker room saying, fuck that guy. I ain't playing for him anymore. You know, John, uh, Allen was on with the junkies in his normal weekly hit on Monday. And, you know, essentially, and I'm looking for the quote because I read it, he basically said that, you know, he'd love to win here, but it's certainly gone through his mind about being somewhere else. And look, you know, Terry McClorn and John Allen, you know, bless their hearts because they've been good soldiers all along and they've been good players. But the new regime, when they come in, they're going to be, they're going to be anybody that's safe. you know, and the guys that actually could bring back value like a John Allen or Terry McCluren could literally be traded and they could get their wish and be out of here. And I'm not saying that that's what Terry said. John, you know, suggested that, you know, he's thought about it, you know, but he said I'd love to be able to win here. And, you know, yeah, I mean, you know, I had somebody say to me, because I talked about the John Allen's stuff on the radio show today, and I had somebody reach out to me to say, you know, his first kind of talking, you know, and saying some stuff about, you know, tired of this shit,

tired of that, you know, came right before the trade deadline. And that may not have been coincidental that maybe he was hoping to be part of the group that got dealt at the trade deadline as well. But yeah, terrible season. Well, let me say it. Jonathan Allen needs to take some complaining lessons from DJ Sweringer if he wants to get out of here. Right. I think top five all-time favorite Tom Leverro line for me is when they reprimanded DJ Sweringer on Christmas Eve. And Tommy said, if they really wanted to punish him, they would have, wait, hold on. If they really wanted to punish, no, they cut him on Christmas Eve. And Tommy said, if they really wanted to punish him, they would have made him stay.

That is top five Tom Leverro written lines of all time. Sweringer, apparently, by the way, was just the biggest pain in the ass for everybody. But you know what? What? I saw him score a pick six in an XFL game last year. Yes, you did. I remember telling me about that. the D.C. defenders.

Right. Ron Rivera said something yesterday that I want to talk about. Actually said a couple of things that I want to talk about. We'll get to that. We'll get to the college football playoff discussion because I want to have it with Tommy. You know, because yesterday I kind of had it by myself. And we'll also look at Monday Night Football, which produced one of the best games of the year.

unexpectedly. Everything is unexpected in the NFL, including 4 and 13. Didn't expect that one. We'll get to all of that and more right after these words from a few of our sponsors. We're coming up to a four game stretch, you know, four weeks left after this buy, and that's where you need to see it. You really do. And it's about going out there and executing about us, making sure we've given them every opportunity to be successful, and that's what it's truly about. I mean, you can only say so much about development and growth. You can only say so much about the process. There's a certain point in time when you get to each year and say,

now it's the time, let's go. That was Ron Rivera yesterday, Tommy. It was part of an answer to a question about how to coach the players through the rest of this miserable season. I mean, when I heard him say, you can only say so much about development and growth You can always say so much about the process. There's a certain point in time when you get to each year, and you have to say, now's the time.

I mean, all he's been talking about all year is development and growth. I know. I know. Those words along with opportunities, which he also mentioned there, opportunity, are his favorite words to use. I mean. So, yeah, it's funny of all guys to say, you know, you got to shut up about development and growth.

Oh, man, Ron. He's something else. Now, I'm not going to give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm just going to suggest that it is possible that what he was doing there was acknowledging that, you know, even for me, at some point I got to stop talking about development and growth. You can only say so much about the process. At a certain time, you've got to get out and do it. But I don't think that's really what it was.

I think he forgets that his go-to move through my business. much of this season was to talk about the development and growth, specifically of Sam Hal. This segment. It's deflection shield. Yeah, this segment of this, exactly. This segment of the show brought to you by our good friends at MyBooky. Go to MyBooky.com or MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C.

And MyBooky will give you a cash bonus on your initial deposit. Tommy, last night, I pulled. my Cincinnati smell test pick. I had given them out on Friday, and I pulled it yesterday. For those of you that didn't hear it and played it anyway, you're welcome. For those of you that heard it and pulled it as well like I did,

I am sorry, but this line, the line, if you were following it, it went to 10 before kickoff from 8.5 on Friday, and it just, there was too much sharp action on Jacksonville, And yeah, Sharp better sluze, too, you know. But it reminded me of the cowboy game on Thanksgiving. I gave Washington out plus 10 and a half on that Wednesday. The line went to 14 and they got demolished.

Cincinnati, man, Jake Browning last night became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for $350 or more and have an 86% or higher. completion percentage in one of his first two NFL starts. That was his second NFL start last night. And he threw for 354 on 32 of 37. And I was reading a lot about, I watched the game. It was a very entertaining game. And the big story out of it is Trevor Lawrence being heard. And we'll see where that injury goes. As of now, they're still calling it a high ankle sprain or an ankle sprain. But that could really impact the AFC playoff picture. But apparently this guy, Jake Browning, who I'm familiar with, he was a good quarterback at Washington.

In fact, the last time Washington was in the playoff, Jake Browning was the starting quarterback against Alabama. But he's been on like, you know, practice squad off practice squad, practice squad, practice squad for like three years. And he finally made an active roster this year backing up Joe Burrow. Joe Burrow goes down and he looked awful against Baltimore in relief. The game you were at, right? The game you were at.

He looked terrible. And then he looked terrible against Pittsburgh in his first start. And then he lit it up last night. And players and coaches said he's one of the most popular people in the building. He is super, super intelligent, hard worker, you know, has learned so much. much and that there actually was some level of belief in him, except for if you watch this game, Zach Taylor's calling wide receiver throws. Like, they had Tyler Boyd threw an interception on a wide receiver backwards pass throw,

a double pass. They tried to double pass from Jamar Chase back to Browning, which went for minus seven yards. Like, Zach Taylor was doing everything he could to manufacture sort of some offense. and yet once they got to running regular offense, they destroyed a really good defensive team in Jacksonville. They had 494 yards of offense in a 34-31 overtime game. I mean, the reason Tommy that line went to 10 at my bookie and everywhere else is because the Sharps just said, yeah, this guy's terrible and Jacksonville's good, and they're going to run him out of the building tonight.

And nobody knew that Jake Browning had that in his, you know, in his capabilities. Anyway, my bookie... When you see a game like that, if you're a Jets fan, he's just got to be splitting your wrist. Oh. Say, look at this guy.

Look at this backup. Look at this guy. And look at us. We can't even get our backup back on the field again because he doesn't want to play. Oh, my God. You know what? We've got to talk about that.

Zach Wilson. We will. But let me just finish up. Mybooky.orgie. You've got to use my promo code. Kevin D.C. to get that cash bonus on the initial deposit. Let's not forget what you just said. So Diana Rusini, I guess, reported that the Jets are ready or were contemplating going back to Zach Wilson,

and Zach Wilson wasn't sure if that's what he wanted to do. As if... This guy paid a scar. Charlotte leather on him any more than what he's done. I mean, the reports are he's already not well-liked in the building as it is. I mean, that's an organization. There's a mess of an organization. And that mess of an organization with Billy Bumpstick at quarterback

are going to beat the commanders on Christmas Eve. Yeah. First of all, if Zach Wilson, if he really is actually suggesting that he doesn't want to play. I cut him on the spot. If you're a real organization, you cut him immediately. There's no value in trading him. That is, that's unbelievable. I kind of feel like we've actually seen some of this before. Maybe with Antonio Brown. Did we see some of this with Antonio Brown? Actually, this should be close to home, because in a way, this is what happened at the end of last here in Washington.

No, that's not what happened. No. No, no, no, no. No, you can't do that to Taylor. Taylor Heineke. Taylor didn't want to play. No, Taylor won't. He didn't say, he didn't, he wasn't benevolent and say, no, that's okay. Give the kid a chance. He didn't want to play.

He was benevolent. He did say give the kids a kid a chance. Yeah, that was the second part of it, but the first part was. You know what the first part was. benched. After being benched for Carson Wentz, he wasn't going to go out on the field and for this team. So, I mean, we saw a little bit of this. And look, I'm a big Taylor Heineck's a fan. Oh, stop. You were a big fan. Oh, nobody did. That's not the same as Zach Wilson. Zach Wilson is quitting. Taylor Heineke, Taylor He was smart.

That Taylor Heineke did not want to play that final game. He was smart not to want, look, in many ways, he was smart not to want to play the Of course he was. He was not going to improve his overall free agency status by playing in that game, but he had the opportunity to get out of it by saying to Ron, I actually think Sam's ready to play and start the game. I think you should go in that direction. Okay, so if he was Eddie Haskell, and you're going to give him credit for that. There was probably a little Eddie Haskell in there, for sure. All right, so I wanted to play one other quick Ron Rivera.

bite. Okay. This this was like people were talking before the game on Sunday. I'm not going to mention who about whether or not Ron was actually going to call the plays. Because remember when he called Jack Del Rio he said he's taking over the defense,

he's going to call the plays. And then all of a sudden, you know, there were names that were popping up and on Sunday there was the Adam Schaefter report. And let me just mention, because I did not mention this yesterday. But I retweeted it and made a comment. And I was quickly reached out to by multiple people who said my take on it was inaccurate.

But Adam Schaefter on Sunday morning before the Miami game said, in their first game since firing defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, commander's head coach Ron Rivera, is having interim defensive backs coach Christian Garcia, who at 29 is one of the youngest position coaches in the NFL, handle a larger role in game planning on game day. And on game day, a big opportunity at a young age and a huge test versus Miami's aerial attack. And so I retweeted that on Sunday because when I read that, first of all, let me just mention,

I've been hearing for a while, well, no, not for a while. Once he mentioned Garcia's name after he fired Del Rio as a guy he was elevating to DB's coach, somebody from the organization, a source in the organization said, Kevin, just so you know, this guy is maybe the most promising coach on the staff. He's the guy that you've got to watch in coming years. So anyway, when Schfter put that out there, I just assumed that it came probably from Ron. I'm curious, what was your first? Did you see this Sunday morning?

Yeah, I did. I really didn't give it as much thought. I mean, I was at the game. I'm preparing for the game. I mean, I don't have time to screw around like you do on Sunday morning, you know, and eat donuts and read your phone and stuff like that. I'm a working man. Wasn't donuts. On Sunday.

Wasn't donuts. It was actually, it was actually Surfside's leftovers from the fajita box that we got, and we made steak and egg fajitas. And they were excellent. But my first reaction, Surfside DC, by the way, dot com, my first reaction was, gosh. God, I mean, they're playing Miami. They are going to get bludgeoned today. And he's already fired Jack. He probably should have waited until after the Miami game to fire Jack.

And he's going to try to share in the blame that's coming with this poor young kid who apparently is a real rising star as a coach, Christian Garcia. I mean, how weak is that? Like I really thought Ron was doing a Ron thing there. And I immediately was told that that did not come from Ron at all. As far as who it came from, I don't know. My guess would be maybe somebody associated with Garcia. You know, maybe Garcia's agent, right? Who knows?

I have no idea. Anyway, back to the Ron soundbite from yesterday that I wanted to play. because leading up to this game, you know, along with that, you know, tweet from Schefter, it was becoming somewhat of a mystery as to whether or not Ron would actually be calling the plays on Sunday. And so he was asked during the presser yesterday about Christian Garcia, and was Garcia a help with play calling? And what was the process behind that? Here's what he said.

Oh, I think it was a combination of everybody for the most part. I mean, what we did was, you know, when we game planned and we put the call sheet together, we all talked about, you know, and I asked the question, hey, what do you feel is best in this situation in these windows? You know, we get into a, you know, let's say we were into a, it was a second along. And I would say, hey, you know, Christians, think about a good third and long call, you know, or if it was second and short coming up. And I said, Steve, hey, second and short, give me a good call. What do you think?

but for the most part, you know, because we had talked about it, we had practiced it, it was easy. I mean, it just kind of got into a couple of flows, a couple of rhythms that were pretty good. And, you know, I was just able to pull them out and, you know, make the calls. So let me just start with this. Like, it was easy. We got into a flow, a couple of rhythms, you know, they were pretty good. It was, it was just, you know, we were able to pull them out and make the calls. I mean, what a great day they had.

What a great day. It was easy. When you think about it, I mean, most people in the stands could have called the defensive game that they called on Sunday. I mean, that part, like I was interested to see what he would say, and there's still some, you know, hey, I got Christian there, I got Steve Russ there, you know, I got these guys there, and we've talked about some of these things. I think Ron basically was just leaning on other people to make the calls.

Now, Ben did report that Ron gave the calls to Steve and Steve Russ, the linebackers coach, called them in to Cody Barton into Barton's helmet to make the call. But, I mean, to me, like, if there's any self-awareness after a game like that, it's like, does it really matter who was making the calls on Sunday? we gave up 45 points, 400 plus yards. They could have scored whatever they, like, but he didn't have that self-awareness, because the day before, he said, essentially it was about two plays, the two long bombs to Tariq Hill.

Okay. Yeah. This goes to something I've preached many times, and it always falls on deaf ears because of ego and lack of intelligence. but when a coached on an NFL football team, it's going to go out and meet with reporters the Monday after a game like that,

they better have met with their own PR people, and their PR people should go over, you know, this is how this sounded when you said this yesterday. This is what's going to come up, you know. This is how it's going to sound. I mean, that's easily fixable. I mean, it's a tone deafness. And people in the, if somebody in the organization has been able to coach these guys

not to be so tone deaf, because it does some damage. It makes them look like idiots. And it gives the fan base even more fuel to think we've got an idiot for a head coach. I don't think he's coachable on this, Tommy. I don't think he's coachable. But you see, that's the problem. I think, they're not coachable because they don't take this stuff seriously. Yeah.

Yet it does damage to them when they don't take it seriously. His best press conference was on Friday when he basically had the shortest, you know, two sentences because he was actually in preparation to coach the team for the, you know, and be involved to a certain degree. Anyway, I don't know what we learned about, you know, who was actually coming up at the play calls, was Ron really, you know, using his defensive expertise, which, you know, everybody that's been around him in different spots says he's got a lot. lot of it, or if it's that he's really checked out, and he's giving Christian and Steve

Russ and other guys a chance to really be that person. He told Josh Harris, hey, I'm going to take over the defense, we've got to do this stuff. But Ron's checked out. I mean, he's a competitor. I'm not questioning his competitiveness.

But this goes back to Tommy, what I said to you at the very beginning of the year, that in so many ways, during the offseason, so many ways in listening to Ron, I had this feeling that he was resigned to his fate and that he knew what was going on and that he knew this last year was going to be his last year and that that's why we were getting a lot of weaving through answers and one answer one day and something completely opposite is that he just wasn't as immersed in, you know, in this job as he had been.

Okay. Yeah, that's all I got for this guy. You know, but, I mean, it will be, you know, there's nothing about the last four games that, if you're looking forward to them, that doesn't look to be anything but painful. I don't know. Sam Howe. That's sad. Watching Sam Howe continue to grow, and I'm being serious about that. I want to see Sam Howe against these really good defenses. I want to see E.B. against these really good defense.

because they just faced the best two that they faced all year. It did not go well. Josina Anderson earlier today reported, quote, I'm told the Chicago Bears are expected to have interest in commanders, assistant head coach, offensive coordinator, Eric Bienami, among others. She's speaking specifically about the head coaching position because Matt Eberfluse is expected to be fired at the end of this year as well. I'd be very surprised if Eric Bianami is back.

in this organization next year. So would I. All right, let's finish. Let's go ahead and finish up then. Yeah, let's finish up with the college football player. Did you have something else to say about the enemy? No, no, but remember one of my long-shot predictions early in the season was Mike Tomlin gets traded to Washington and becomes the head coach.

He's got one year left on his contract in Pittsburgh, and there's been no talk of a contract extension. I think that's edging a little bit more closer towards not being such a long shot. I would still put it at a very long shot. Very much a long shot. I would. I wouldn't wager any money on that. I wouldn't either. Okay. Would I take it just a little bit more seriously than I did when I said it about six, seven weeks ago? Is it okay if I don't take it any more seriously than when you said it six or seven weeks ago? You know, I mean, no, it's not. No, it's not. It's not. It's a It's not. It's not okay. Okay. Convinced me that I should take it more seriously.

I think I just did. No, you just told me that Mike Tomlin might not be in Pittsburgh. You didn't convince me that he'd be in Washington, that he'd be traded to Washington. Josh Harris used to own a piece of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Okay. That was why you brought it up the first time. What's advanced this story and made it more likely? We're closer to the end of the season. Okay. Because we knew Ron was going to go. Pittsburgh right now still has, you know, if the season ended today, they'd be in the playoffs again, right? Aren't they in the playoffs right now? I think they are at 7 and 5.

So if Tomlin's available, I would, I'd borderline keel over if they traded for Mike Tomlin. And by the way, I would love it. I love Mike Tomlin. I love everything about Mike Tomlin. I love everything about Mike Tomlin. Tomlin. I just don't see this being the direction unless he were to bring in Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin. Okay, wait a minute. Hold on. I might be changing my mind. Kevin Colbert's still out there. He was the longtime head of player, you know, he's the quasi-GM for the Steelers forever. He's not, he's not working this year. He's available. I've suggested before that maybe Colbert's a guy that, you know, Josh Harris could be leaning on to help him navigate the general manager candidates that are out there. But if they hired Kevin Colbert, Mike Tomlin, Colbert, man, he might like Sam Hal too. You know what?

I'm sorry, I apologize. I am more open to that as a long-shot possibility. We'll finish up with some college football playoff talk next, right after. these words from a few of our sponsors. It's December. We are getting into the holiday mood. I know someone is, and I bet you that Shelly's would be a great place to have and partake in that holiday spirit and festive mood that you're in, Tommy.

Why are you in such a holiday mood? You told me that before the show began. Well, we put up a Christmas tree this year. We generally haven't put up a Christmas tree in a while. Well, when I say we put up, we got a little tree on the table. But we haven't even done that. Really? I mean, for the past few years, there hasn't been any, you wouldn't walk in our house on Christmas Eve and think it was July 4th.

Why? Or July 5th. Why? Because we just, you know, we just not that interested in it anymore. Okay. But for some reason, I've got a revival of it going on this year. Maybe it's seeing that tree. this little artificial tree that we have on a table.

I don't know what it is, but I'm feeling Christmassy. And actually, when you walk into Shelly's any day of the year, it feels like a holiday, but particularly during the Christmas time when it's cold outside, you come into a warm place like Shelly's. And, you know, Shelley's is one of my regular stop, Shelly's back room at 1331 F Street, Northwest, in the district. But when I go, I usually have to leave earlier than I want to, because I have to drive up to Frederick. You know, like, three time zones.

I need a passport to get back home. So I'm careful about what I drink. I maybe have two beers for the time on there because that's a long way to go. Right. So I don't get a chance to really stay and enjoy with a lot of the friends I've made at Shelly's, a lot of who live in D.C. and can just go outside and get an Uber home. I don't have that luxury. So once in a while, and I'm going to be doing it before Christmas,

I rent a hotel room. I read like the J.W. Marriott right around the block from Shelly's. And I hang out at Shelly's for a whole night. That's how good it is at Shelly's back room is I'm willing to rent a hotel room and stay the night in Washington just to hang out in Shelly. I don't know. A hotel room when you're just hanging out by yourself, and you know, you can think about sleeping without being interrupted.

You can order room service. You can watch whatever you want to watch. Sometimes that's not a bad gig. You're acting like, you're acting like, you know, spending a night in a hotel room instead of driving back to Frederick for this little tree that's on a table is like a much better option than just one night. And where are you going to stay? At the J.W. Mary right around the quarter. Yeah. Yeah, great hotel.

God, one year that J.W. Marriott right there, we went down there. We had no power for like, it was an ice storm. The kids were little, and we had no generator. And after a day, I said, that's enough of this. And we went down and the only place that had a room at that point because of the ice storm was the J.W. Marriott. We were there for three days. That's such a, that's a good hotel. That's a great part of the city, too, to walk around in.

Yeah, it is. You know, it is. Yeah, it is. And it's a great part of it's. city because Shelly's back room is down there. Damn right. Okay. This from Rich, Rich said, and by the way, rate us and review us, especially on Apple and Spotify, if you get a chance.

It's very helpful. We really appreciate when you do it. Subscribe to the podcast. Follow us on Apple and Spotify as well. Actually, I didn't look for a review to read. I should have done that before the show. But let me just read this from Rich. Rich wrote and said,

Kev, did you watch the Bengals last night? Teams without their starting quarterback can still win, Kevin. Florida State should be in, Kevin. You're wrong. Rich, of course, referring to Florida State like the Bengals last night, could have won maybe with their backup quarterback had they gotten into the playoff. I made, I took time yesterday on the show to make my. feelings about Florida State not getting in in Alabama getting in very clear and I will do so with

you but I want to hear your thoughts first. Well, I'm not the big college football fan that you are and some of our listeners are, but from where I said it looks like Florida State got screwed in this. And there ain't no two ways about that. I agree that, you know, I mean, you think, the loss of their starting quarterback as a reason is very short-sighted because a much better story than what's going on right now and would be the story of the year in college football

is if Florida State would advance to the championship game with their backup quarterback. That's a better story than what you got going on in the tournament now. And the story should count for something. But, you know, it's basically what counts is Alabama, the eyeballs, the attention that Alabama brings. And I have a column in tomorrow's Washington Times that about the F.S., about the Affleck voice, Nick Savant and Dion Sanders, who both did pretty well for themselves, you know, in the last couple of weeks, despite not necessarily, deserving of what they got.

You know, they do these Afflack commercials. Yeah. You know, and, well, Dion Sanders with a four-day team gets named Sports Illustrated sports middle of the year, and Sabin, who won the SEC championship, they beat Georgia, but Florida State did everything to be in this tournament, yet it's Nick Saban who winds up getting in. So the Affleck boys have done pretty well for themselves. Do you have a problem with Dion being the Sports Illustrated person?

Of course I do. It's absurd. Why? Because he had a coached a four-day team. It wasn't that much better than the team that he took over. Who should have been? It was a blimp. Who should have been the sports person of the year?

I don't know. Sam, how? How's that? No, I want to know. I know who shouldn't have been, Dion Sanders. See, this is what you do. this is what you do. You say, well, who should have been?

That's not the point. I know who shouldn't have been. Well, actually, if you don't have anybody that would have been better, then there's no sportsmen of the year. Okay. How's that? Okay, fine. Okay, fine. So, God.

I actually think it should have been Nicole Yokic. I didn't have a problem with Dion. First of all, I didn't even know they still did this, to be honest with you. But off the top of my head, when Dent. and my producer said he won it. I actually thought for a moment, and I said, there's something that makes sense about that.

But after thinking about it, to me, it would have been Nicole Yokic for what he did during the NBA playoffs last year. But I was thinking primarily a team sports. I thought actually you might have an answer. And it might be some sort of individual sport. I don't know. But anyway,

I think the attention to college football is always, there. But the attention early in the season for about a three to four week period, it was the biggest story in sports. There weren't a lot of sports stories that I can think of during 2023 that drew that much attention. It was a team that ultimately just barely exceeded the over-under projection, which was three and a half with four wins. But, man, he made the initial part. I mean, look, it was the Colorado, the Oregon Colorado game was the second most watch game of the season behind the Ohio State Michigan game. I know all this.

I get all that. I didn't have that much of a problem. And liking the first three chapters and the last 12 sucked. But you came away saying, was that a hell of a book? No. No, but you'd focus on the first three chapters, you know? It wasn't a pre-chapter book. I see what you're saying. I see what you're saying.

I thought you were saying, and the rest of sports sucked. No, you're saying the rest of Dion sucked and his team sucked. Got it. I don't know, Tommy. We do together two shows a week, you know, multiplied by, you know, about 44 weeks out of the year. We do about 88 shows. There are a half dozen of the shows that are, so memorable. People are talking about them. They still come up and ask me about them. And then,

you know, the other 82, they're just okay. You're not four and eight. You don't lose that last six in a row. So back to Rich's note. First of all, I understand your position on Florida State. The NFL and college football are completely different. First of all, the way the postseason are designed are completely different. You know, there are games, there are standings. But The teams are much closer. The talent disparities are much greater in college football. Tommy, I got, so I had a bunch of people reach out to me in one person. My take, and I'll just give it to you in a nutshell,

I didn't have a problem with Florida State being excluded. I watched Florida State with their backup quarterback against Florida. I watched Florida State with their third-string quarterback against Louisville. I read through what the committee is tasked with doing, the rules. that they have, and a big part of it is conference championships, well, it's all of it. Conference championships, strength of schedule, head-to-head, comparative outcomes, and then other factors such as unavailability of key players. And it sucks for Florida State that they lost Jordan Travis, but they're not the same team.

And the thing that they had a chance to see was Florida State without Jordan Travis. And so I had somebody reach out to me, a friend of mine, who said, what if, you know, J.J. McCarthy or Michael Penick's Jr. or Quinn yours, Texas, Washington, and Michigan's quarterbacks. In the kneel down at the end of the game got hit blindsided and, you know, tore an ACL, you know, on a cheap shot or something, and they were lost. Would Michigan have been kept out for Georgia? Would Washington, you know, it's an interesting thought, but there's a big difference. And the committee, I think, would say, and read Heather Dinnich, story. It's very good about, she had a lot of background stuff from the committee, but that

the committee would say we had a chance to see Florida State without Jordan Travis. We wouldn't have had a chance to see Michigan without J.J. McCarthy or Washington without Michael Panix Jr. or Texas without Quinn yours. And so we wouldn't have known. And what they knew in watching Florida State without Jordan Travis is they were utterly helpless offensively. I mean, whether it was their third string or their second string, it didn't matter. The glimpse that they got, which was more than they would have gotten with, you know, an injury at the end of a championship game like the Big Ten title game in J.J. McCarthy was ugly. And it was not, you know, Florida State to them, to the football people on that committee,

was not the Florida State team that had gone 11 and 0. It's certainly possible that their great defense and special teams could have kept them in a game against Bama. against Michigan, but Bama was in the moment the much better football team. And it's subjective, of course. There is some objective information. Strength of schedule. Somebody said that Greenberg, Mike Greenberg, has been going off on strength of record. I said yesterday they don't have strength of record or strength of anything else other

than strength of schedule and the criteria and the selection of the four best teams, not the most deserving, the four best. and Alabama's strength of schedule was fifth and Florida States was 55th. So I, anyway, that's how I would answer the question about Michigan, would they be dropped out if McCarthy had gotten hurt after the, like if he had slipped and broke a wrist, you know, in a team party after they won the Big Ten title? No, because they didn't have a chance to see what Michigan was without him. And they did see what Florida State was without him. And that's why I didn't have a problem with it. I don't have a problem.

But one other quick thing on this, Tommy, because some of you who responded to me said, who cares? It's just a game. Get over these people suing everybody and class action suits and governors. No, that's actually not, I don't think, the right way to look at it.

This is big money. This is a massive, massive loss to Florida. state to the ACC, to Florida State, everything about Florida State. If you follow any kind of, you know, academic, the strengths of these schools academically, you know, how hard it is to get into these schools, the number of applicants to a university, a lot of this is driven by the success of their sports teams in these places. And Florida State, that is hurtful emotionally, but it is hurtful financially too. So to those that reached out and said, why are you even spending time on this? It's not

important. It's just a game. I mean, whatever. They'll get over it. It's a big deal that they aren't in it. But again, my personal view is, I actually think the committee made the right decision based on what they were tasked with. Because of the business of the game. not because of the competition of the game. I disagree with that. If you're about to tell me that you think it's because Alabama is a bigger draw or bigger money, is that what you're going to say? And Nick, Nick Say, look, say, who's the face of college football?

And it's been so for 10, 12 years now, Nick Saban. Yeah. Yeah, I don't tell me it doesn't count for anything. I don't think it counted for anything. I don't think that that had anything to do with anything in the final decision. I really don't. That's a little bit naive. I don't think it's naive.

I don't. Then everybody that's reported on this is naive, too, including Heather Dinnich. I think that this is, let me tell you that the one thing that I would, whether it was Bama or Georgia or Ohio State. I mean, TCU had lost the Big 12 championship game last year, Tommy, and got into the playoff at the expense of, you know, I'm forgetting who it was at the expensive. But anyway, I think that they actually have the, you know, the task of picking the four best teams with this criteria, and that's what they do. But one thing is 100% true. They, the Florida State thought about them playing Michigan. what, and I read this this morning, the average score of the semifinal games since this 14

playoff started 10 years ago, 40 to 21. A lot of that has been because Bama's crushed people, you know, over the years in the semifinal game. And what they saw was another 40 to 20. It wouldn't have been 40 to 21. It would have probably been 31 to nothing or 21 to 3 or something like that because the Florida State couldn't score. But they, they didn't want that. And Bama was the better team, and it provides a better matchup with Michigan, for sure. They're a one and a half point dog. Florida State would have been a 15 to 16 point underdog to Michigan. But that, you know, they certainly wanted to avoid that, but they were able to avoid that by having legitimate reasons for doing so. Anyway, you got anything else?

I got nothing else for you today, boss. You did pretty well today. Today was a good September start. Let's see whether or not we can do better than four and eight when we reconvene on Thursday. Okay, Sonny. We'll do that. Enjoy that Christmas tree, Sparky. I'm back tomorrow. I don't know with whom, but somebody.