The Kevin Sheehan Show - WFT Crushes Clown Coach

Episode Date: January 10, 2022

Kevin opened with Washington's easy 22-7 season-ending win over the incapable NY Giants led by their clown coach Joe Judge. Then Tim Murray/VSIN joined Kevin to talk about the incredible Raiders-Chargers game last night and tonight's College Football title game between Georgia and Alabama. Kevin finished with one of the most memorable plays in WFT history which happened 35 years ago today.   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. Gibson is loose. And that's a Washington touchdown for Antonio Gibson. Well deserved on a day that he's dominated.

An 18-yard touchdown run. A thousand-yard season and a hundred-yard rushing day. You know, minus the fumbling issues that he's had at times, Antonio Gibson's are really good. back. I really love him as a runner. And I thought yesterday was the best rushing day. I don't know if it was statistically or not, but I thought in terms of his vision and his running, I thought it was the best day of his very brief career. Good day to you, or whenever it is that you're listening to this podcast. Tim Murray is going to be my guest in the next segment where we will

break down in detail together. One of the greatest NFL regular season games. are certainly one of the most memorable NFL regular season games of all time. Last night's Raiders 35-32 overtime win over the Chargers in the final game of this first 17-game NFL regular season. We'll talk some other NFL, and then we will preview the National Championship game tonight. You know, amidst coaching firings and all of the incredible games from yesterday, meaningful games from yesterday. We get another night of a big-time game, the college football championship game tonight

between Alabama and Georgia. We'll talk to Tim about that. At the very end of the show, you're going to hear how 35 years ago today, one of the famous plays in Washington football team franchise history was called by Pat Summerall and John Madden. Let me begin by telling you that today's show is presented by MyBooky. Go to mybooky.ag or MyBooky.com. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C.

And they will match your first deposit, dollar for dollar, up to a thousand bucks. We've got the NFL playoffs. So you've got a championship game tonight. We've got six NFL playoff games coming up this weekend, two on Saturday, three on Sunday, and then one a week from tonight. Then you get into the divisional round the following weekend, championship Sunday. three weeks from yesterday and then a Super Bowl. So lots of opportunities. I totally recommend MyBooky as a safe place and a fair place to wager. They're giving you free money to bet with too.

You should take it even if you've already got a place. MyBooky.ag, mybooky.com. Use my promo code Kevin, D.C. And when you sign up, if there's something already written in the promo code, erase it, and write Kevin D.C. All right. Last night's game, let me just tell you, and we're going to go into detail on this. I think it's one of the most memorable NFL regular season games of all time, and I don't think I'm exaggerating that. I know we're creatures of recency. I know we love to say, you know, hey, we saw it. We were there for it.

We were there for the greatest ever, or we were there for the worst ever, or whatever it was. That game last night was riveting. And it was riveting for so many different reasons. But it was a phenomenal football game that capped off an incredible final Sunday of the NFL season. But that game last night, an all-timer. And if you didn't see it, and if you don't know the particulars of it, Tim Murray will join me. We'll go through it very carefully. I think there are some things from that game that have been described here the day after that are very inaccurate. And I will get to some of those things. But that game really, really, you know, really is almost an entire show.

That's how incredible it was. And there were other great games yesterday as well. So we will get to that and we'll take you through the whole thing. And a lot of what happened during the game that is being dissected today by football fans and football pundits all over. But an incredible football game last night between the Raiders and the Chargers, especially given the nature of the ending where a tie would have been beneficial to both teams and a loss meant that one of them was out. We start with the season finale for your Washington football team against what was truly a ghastly team in the New York Giants.

I mean, this was an appalling excuse for an NFL team. not only have they tapped out. They are so poorly coached and disorganized and so egregiously conceding these games, I thought it was disgraceful. I would have fired Joe Judge at halftime had I been John Mara. He's a disgrace to the game. Obviously, I'm a little bit more emotional because of the things he said last week about our franchise. I didn't think anybody could make me or anybody could make me generate a little bit more emotion than I thought I had. I know the cowboy game, you know, a month ago or so, I got a little bit more

excited. But this buffoon, you know, criticizing Washington as a clown show organization, he's not wrong, as he is right now coaching one of the worst NFL teams I've ever laid eyes on. over the last month. A guy who said, you know, you'll never see my team quit when the Eagles tapped out in the second half against Washington last year in the season finale, when all his team has done and all he's done is tap out here over the last month yesterday. The most obvious example is they went quarterback sneak on back-to-back plays in the third quarter or in the second quarter of a three to nothing football game, this guy's an embarrassment

to the league. The league should fine Joe Judge in the New York Giants for the display that they put on yesterday. Do you know that through three quarters yesterday, they had 33 passing yards? Do you know that through the first half, there was a six-quarter run, if you go back to last week where they had a grand aggregate total of zero passing yards. They had negative 10 last week against the Bears and at halftime yesterday

had 10 total passing yards. I mean, this guy's the biggest boob in the NFL. You talk about a rant last week that was completely and utterly delusional and about

as worse from a timing standpoint as you could ever I mean, this guy got his ass kicked in last week where his players quit on him, and he was patting himself on the back for having a team that was still in the fight and then criticizing his upcoming opponent. Now, I did say last week, I think at the end with Tommy, or maybe on Friday I forget, that maybe this is a genius move to really inspire the opponent to come out and kick their ass yesterday when really the goal was to lose out so that they would get.

better drafting position. I don't think he's clever enough to have done that. I really don't. This Joe Judge has not been fired as of yet today. I hope he doesn't get fired. I mean, the rest of the NFC East, I am sure, is hoping that the Maras keep Joe Judge. He is honestly in recent years, remember when Tom Sula was the coach for the 49ers every year, it wasn't good. Great position coach. We've had some bad NFL coaches. I don't think anything.

Anything resembles Joe fake tough guy judge. The jury is in on Joe Judge. He is horrendous as a head coach. He's 10 and 23 in his two seasons, and he got his ass kicked over the last month and a half. And yesterday, as I met him, mentioned all last week, even though I would have preferred Washington to lose the game and, you know, not lose draft position, which they did, they lost two spots, they're 11th in the draft. I didn't

think there was any way they could lose to this team. You know, the Giants were okay defensively, but with Mike Glennon at quarterback, oh my God, they were horrible. And then with Jake Fromm at quarterback, no better. And, you know, they were clearly, they had clearly quit on him. You know, I am sure, I'm not sure of anything. I would bet there's a lot of eye rolling with this guy. I mean, this guy's a buffoon of the highest order. And last week, and by the way, he and Rivera, you know, shook hands, and neither one of them really elaborated much on what was said. But Rivera on my radio show on Friday was not happy. with Joe Judge calling, you know, them out for fist fights on the sideline and being a clown show organization. The Giants are the clown show led by lead clown Joe Judge in the NFL right now.

Again, don't mistake me for, like, going into, you know, amnesia mode about my own franchise. I understand what Washington is, okay? Bottom feeder. Major clown show. But Ron Rivera is light years, not only a better coach, but a better leader than this idiot Joe judge. If they keep him, bless their hearts. They are doing everybody else in the division a big favor. Washington beat the Giants 22 to 7. Again, I really don't think there was any way they could lose the game. Like they could try.

Nobody played great, although Gibson did, and the running game did. Heineke was, you know, a C-minus probably in the game yesterday. They just couldn't lose this game against this particular football team. And I'm kind of glad on some level that they didn't because, you know, it would have given this guy, well, I don't know, maybe it would have been another reason for the mayor's to keep him to say, hey, look at what he did, he beat Washington. Woo! But Washington gets the win.

They lose two spots in their draft position. They fall back to 11th. I think one of the interesting things about, you know, the draft, and we're going to obviously have a whole off season here. We've got a couple of months, you know, a month and a half, I guess, you know, two months till free agency begins, and we'll be talking a lot about that clearly. The draft and the, you know, possibility of getting a quarterback in the draft,

we will discuss ad nauseum. The 10 teams in front of them, like if you really look at the list, there are teams in that mix that are going to be thinking quarterback. You know, Detroit's at two, and give them credit for playing a great game and beating Green Bay, but Jacksonville's still number one. Give them the most credit for going out and beating the Colts yesterday. And a game that could have cost them the number one overall pick had Detroit not won. But Jacksonville's at one.

They've got a quarterback. I don't know. Maybe they like golf. Then you get Houston at three, whether it's, you know, Deshawn Watson or Davis Mills, they don't need a quarterback. The Jetstone at four. But then you get the Giants at five. They might be in the quarterback mix. Caroline at six, definitely in the quarterback mix. Then at seven, the Giants have the Bears pick because of the Justin Fields move up. So, you know, the Giants have two opportunities there, five and seven to take a quarterback. Atlanta's at eight, who knows what the Matt Ryan situation is they might be in the quarterback decision. They might decide on quarterback.

Denver's at nine, definitely in the quarterback mix, unless they pull off a trade for cousins or somebody else. And then you have, you've got the Jets who have Seattle's pitch. at 10. So Denver, Atlanta, Giants, Carolina, you know, all teams in front of Washington that could be in the quarterback market. It's also possible that nobody's going to like any of these quarterbacks and Washington might like one that might be there at 11. We'll see. As far as the game goes yesterday, I do have my game take. So let's get to that. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's game take. This is going to be a short game take for the final game take. of the year. Look, this game was miserable going into it. It was one of two games on the NFL's

final Sunday board that had both teams out of playoff contention. Minnesota, Chicago was the other one. Washington played a dead as a doorknale team. So a lot of this, I know what Tommy said on Thursday's podcast. I think he's insane. I don't think this was a culture game. I don't think this was a big game. I don't think, you know, losing it meant anything, and I don't think winning it meant anything. But there were a couple of performances that I liked and maybe one or two that I didn't like. I'll start with the short list of things that I liked from the game. They really ran the ball. You know, against a team, by the way, that's been okay, you know, against the run, you know, for the most part.

Like even Chicago, a team that likes to run it couldn't really run it even though they blew out the Giants last week. I mean, they average like three, I think it was three yards of carry or something like that. The Eagles, who they beat for their last win, the Eagles even didn't, you know, a couple of weeks ago and a 34 to 10 win over the Giants, didn't rush it at the same level that they had been rushing the football. So if there was one thing that the Giants were halfway professional looking with, it was their defense and their rush defense in particular. and Washington carved them up yesterday. Got to give the offensive line a ton of credit. Antonio Gibson, I thought, had one of the best days, if not the best day, of his short career here.

He went over 1,000 yards. Not a big deal in 17 games, obviously. You know, he didn't, you know, this year he only played 16 games. He missed one of the games. So he got over 1,016 games. But I thought that this was the first game, maybe the two Dallas games last year when they ran the ball down Dallas's throat on Thanksgiving and earlier than that at FedEx Field. I thought that his vision as a runner yesterday was as good as I have seen it. His cuts, his vision on the zone runs outstanding. He went 21 for a buck 46, average seven yards.

a carry. I don't think he's average seven yards of carry before. I'm looking it up right now, because I didn't even do this on the radio show this morning. Maybe he did. Last year, so this was by yardage, the best game of his career. He had 128 yards in the first game against Dallas last year on 20 carries, 6.4 yards per carry, and then had 115 yards on Thanksgiving Day last year for 5.8 yards per carry on 20 carries in that 41 to 16 Thanksgiving Day win over Dallas. I think vision-wise, this was his best rushing day. Was yardage wise and seven yards a carry was the best average for him. And he almost had more on that one cutback before the last touchdown run that he had on that cutback where he stretched, stretch,

stretched, then cut it all the way back and then was almost heading into the end zone and then stumbled, ended up with an eight-yard run. Still, really outstanding. I think at the end of one of his runs, the ball came out, but he was already down. Fumbling's the big issue. He had five of them on the year, lost three. So that's, I'm sorry, he ended up with six fumbles on the year, lost four. Yeah, that was it, because the last one he lost was in the Dallas game. But I thought Antonio Gibson was outstanding yesterday. I thought just overall the rushing attack was outstanding. 37 carries 226 yards, 6.1 yards per carry. And I'm telling you, I told you this a couple weeks ago, they like Jonathan Williams. I like him too. Like he has some power. He's got some

really good vision. He was on the practice squad. By the way, he's 27 years old. You know, he's bounced around. He's been in Buffalo, New Orleans, Indy, Detroit. And then when he was on their practice squad. And I asked Ron Rivera about Jonathan Williams a couple of weeks ago, I think maybe before the second Dallas game. And he said, I really like his vision and power. And they played him and they gave him more carries yesterday than they did Jared Patterson, you know, in the game. Jonathan Williams, seven carries 45 yards. Also had a really nice fumble recovery off a botched, you know, snap with Taylor Heineke. seven carries 45 yards, 6.4 yards per carry for Jonathan Williams. Jared Patterson went 6 for 21 on the day. So their overall rushing attack, the offensive line, Gibson Williams in particular, on the list of things that I liked from the game yesterday.

Terry McCorn is on that list. Four catches 93 yards. Terry goes over 1,000 yards for the second time in his three-year career. had 1118 yards last year on 87 catches, 77 receptions this year for 1,053 yards. Obviously, I think, a little bit of a disappointment statistically this year when you go back to like week two when he had 11 catches against the Giants for, you know, over 100 yards. I think we were thinking, wow, this could be a 100 catch season. This could be a 14, 15, 100 yard kind of a season for Terry McLaren. But they were limited offensively. Let's not, you know, let's not sugarcoat it. You know, they had issues at quarterback, and then you had too many guys out, you know,

that would have really made it easier for McLaren. Logan Thomas, J.D. McKissick, you know, no Curtis Samuel for much of the year. He's a really good player. He's a true number one receiver. He's a, you know, a top 12 to top 15 number one wide out in the game. It's going to be interesting to see what happens in this offseason because at the end of next he's an unrestricted free agent if they don't try to extend them, which I'm sure they'll try to do. But, you know, there was a comment last week from Ron Rivera where he said, we'll evaluate everything.

I thought that was an interesting comment. I didn't hear about that comment until yesterday. But, you know, I think the more interesting part of a Terry McCorn, Washington negotiation, will be from Terry's standpoint. You know, Terry and his agent may want to be patient and want to, you know, may want to see what Washington. does at quarterback. You know, you can say the grass isn't always greener on the other side, but you know what, leaving here, the grass is almost always greener unless you're going to the New York Giants if Joe Judge is still there. But, you know, I think he likes it here, and I know they like him. I mean, he is always somebody that Rivera brings up as a culture guy, as a natural leader. I think it's really important that they get him locked up because they'd be back.

backing a Brinks truck up for him in many places next year if he makes it to unrestricted free agency. I think it's going to be most interesting to watch how anxious Terry is. If I'm Terry and his agent, I'm waiting to see what this organization does offensively, a quarterback in particular. I thought McLaurin was really good in the game yesterday. Defensively, I thought there were some really good performances, again, against a totally inept and impotent offensive football team that did not seem very motivated. How did you like Kenny Goliday's alligator arms on that one play that could have been a touchdown?

I mean, it was so obvious from the head coach to several of the players to the players that were playing in the game, just how incapable they were as a professional NFL team, especially on offense. But I still thought that before his ant injury, I thought Cameron Curl was outstanding. I thought John Allen looked good. I thought James Smith Williams had a really nice game. I thought Jamon Davis obviously had that one stop that was great. I thought 56 Bradley King flashed in moments. And obviously Bobby McCain had two interceptions, including a pick six on a pass,

that Jake Fromm, I mean, is still staring down. I mean, that was amateur hour, but a nice play by McCain, and then he had another pick as well. I thought all of those things were good. I thought they had some good performances in the game. Again, the defensive performances consider the opposition. Look, the defense ultimately, and I thought Cole Holcomb was all over the field too, defensively is the biggest disappointment, the defense for this season. I mean, when we get into more maybe this week of, really breaking down what, you know, we liked from the season and what we didn't like from the

season, defense is going to be at the top of the list for the things that were major disappointments. You know, they'll lift some of their numbers, I'm sure, statistically after a game like yesterday where they, you know, they held the Giants, ultimately the Giants, you know, made it a one-score game in the fourth quarter. Didn't feel like it, but they did. It was 12 to 7, which tells you Washington isn't that great either. But the Giants had 177 yards in the game. They averaged three yards per play in the game. They managed only 10 first downs. They literally had nothing at halftime. I'm pulling it up right now because I'm interested to see if Washington was good enough on third down defense yesterday, so they didn't finish last.

Yep, they finished 31st in the league. They did not finish last on third down defense. The Chargers finished dead last third down defense. The difference I may have pointed this out on Friday is that the Chargers offensively finished, I think, in the top five on third down, and Washington finished, let's see, 19th offensively on third down. Anyway, on the list of things that I didn't like from the game yesterday, Taylor Heineckee wasn't very good. Look, we saw 16 and a half games.

He can't be a starting quarterback for a team that has high aspirations. That's just, I think we're all there now, aren't we? Maybe not all of us. I think there's still some people out there that, you know, I mean, there were people just four or five weeks ago that thought that Washington needed to extend him before, you know, there was a bidding war for Taylor Heineke. First of all, he was already under contract for next year. Taylor Heineke's an NFL backup quarterback.

And by the way, he's a backup quarterback I'd want on my team, and I think he will be on this team next year. He's perfect for being a backup quarterback. He is fearless. He's competitive. He can make plays. He can make plays off schedule. He's the guy that you bring in and you don't. Don't worry. He's going to be able to run your offense, but he's also going to be able to make

some plays for you. And he's going to believe in himself, and the guys that play for him are going to believe in him. He should be this team's backup quarterback next year. He should not be the team starter. You know, the path of Taylor Heineke this year was, you know, up and down and then a four-game winning streak that made people believe that, well, maybe he's a low-end starter in this league to then finishing up with just a rough stretch of games. And I know he had COVID, and I know the team went through a lot here. You know, these last four or five games are kind of hard to really, you know, say, well, this is who they are.

This was a tough stretch for them. With the tragic circumstances surrounding the accident that Deshaeser Everett was involved in, the tragedy with Montez Sweat's brother, all of the COVID, the missing players, the players that were out, you know, playing Garrett Gilbert in a game that you had to have. But Taylor Heineke's last four games included a 4.9 QBR, a 3.6 QBR, and a 5.0 QBR in the game yesterday against the Giants. I thought he had some horrendous throws on the first drive, on the third and goal before they kicked a field goal.

Cam Sims is wide open. He throws high to Sims. You can say, well, Sims should have caught it. just like Logan Thomas, remember, had that touchdown catch against, I forget who it was, maybe Carolina, I forget who it was, when the ball was thrown super high, but he pulled it down. The Raiders. He had a couple of great catches against the Raiders on balls that sailed high. And this one sailed high to Cam Sims, and he was wide open. You just have to be able to make that throw. I think, by the way, if Cam Sims had pulled it down, I don't think he would have gotten both feet in. The interception that was overturned, which it should have, because McKin he didn't actually intercept it. But that was a terrible throw, terrible overthrow for Terry McLorn into double coverage. He just was, I think, a C-minus yesterday. You know, 9 of 18, 120 yards. Look, they didn't need him yesterday because they were running the ball at will. He took too many sacks. He holds onto the ball too long. He doesn't see things quickly enough. And yet, he'll make some plays. Like he made that beautiful deep ball.

throw to McLaren for 40 yards. You know, that was the one big throw that basically accounted for a third of his yardage yesterday. The two-point conversion when he extended that play for like eight, nine seconds, didn't convert it, but still, those are the things I love about him. There's a lot that I really like about them, you know. We've talked about those things, mobility, athleticism, fearlessness, competitiveness, leadership. He's just not a starting quarterback in the NFL, okay? He can be a starter, you know, as a backup in a pinch to start a game. He can come in. But if your aspirations are to win

double-digit games and be a legitimate team that's got a chance in January after the regular season ends, it's not with number four. I know I declared him officially a backup after the Denver game. And then I said, look, let's just, he played some really good games. And the bottom line is Washington had seven wins this year. In six of their wins, he was significant to the outcome. Let me say five of them. Yesterday would be one where he wasn't. Maybe the Seattle game and maybe the Raider game, you know, not the, not in the top two reasons why they won the game. But then again, and a lot of the losses, he wasn't at the top of the list of why they lost. But he's just not, he's not a starting 17 game a year quarterback on a good football team.

You know, a team that's going to win 10, 11, 12 games and have a chance. As I've said all along, all year long, they've got to swing big, they've got to aim higher. May not land anything, but they've got to try, and they will. A couple of other quick observations from the game. How about Joey Sly? He didn't, I know he had the one extra point blocked against Dallas. Was it Dallas? No.

He had one extra point blocked, I think, against somebody. I'm forgetting who it was now. But he did not miss a field goal, 12 for 12 while in Washington. Also, number 40 only played one play in the game yesterday. He was a fullback. in the game yesterday. His name was Armagh. That's his last name.

I have no idea who he is. But I noticed number 40 line up as a fullback on a play where they handed it off to Jonathan Williams. And I was like, man, that looks like a fullback. I didn't know they had a fullback. I don't know who the dude was, but it's just an observation. Number 40 was in the game as a lead blocker on a play yesterday. Okay, that's it for your game take. I wanted to mention real quickly in case,

I already mentioned the draft position. Their schedule in terms of the teams they face are set for next year as well. Here is their 2022 schedule of opponents, all right? The dates and times will be out in April or May, and I will have my, of course, annual version of the mock schedule. Next year, the NFC teams will have nine home games and eight road games. This year in the first year of 17, the AFC had the extra home game. For Washington, it's not much of a benefit, as we know, to play games at home.

But their home games are against their three division opponents, Dallas, Philadelphia, and the Giants. the NFC East plays the AFC South next year and the NFC North next year. So they have home games against Tennessee and Jacksonville. They also have home games against Green Bay in Minnesota. That could be an Aaron Rogers trip to Washington. That could be a Kirk Cousins trip to Washington. If he's still a Minnesota Viking,

they fired their general manager and head coach today, Rick Spielman and Mike Zimmer. The one additional AFC opponent will come from the AFC North in their position of finish, which is third place. They'll play the Cleveland Browns at home. And they will also play the Atlanta Falcons at home, right? So Dallas, Philly, the Giants, Tennessee Jacksonville, Green Bay, Minnesota, Cleveland, and Atlanta at home. The road games, Dallas, Philly, the Giants, Detroit and Chicago, Houston, and. and Indianapolis and a road game in San Francisco.

All right? There you go. Those are the opponents for 2022. The NFL playoff schedule is set. Murray and I are going to talk about some of the games next, but it breaks down as follows Cincinnati and the Raiders on NBC Saturday at 430. Weather could be a factor in Cincinnati. The Bengals are six and a half point favorites.

The bills are four and a half point favorites. favorite Saturday night against the Patriots. That game in Orchard Park, weather could be a factor there as well. Sunday at 1 on Fox, it's Tampa Bay minus 9 over the Eagles. At 430 on CBS, it's the Cowboys' three-point favorites over the 49ers. That is probably the marquee matchup of Wild Card Weekend. The Sunday nighter on NBC is Kansas City laying 12, 12 and a half at home against the Steelers. We just saw that game a few weeks ago. And then the first ever Monday night wild card playoff game, first time I think ever, period

for a Monday night playoff game. The Rams are four-point favorites over the Cardinals. All right. Tim Murray will be my guest next. We'll talk about the other NFL games go in depth on really one of the most memorable NFL games in recent memory, maybe of all time. and we'll preview the national championship game as well. We'll get to that right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

Raiders in, charges out, Steelers in. That was Daniel Carlson in overtime last night. And as I mentioned at the start of this show, one of the most memorable NFL regular season games of all time. That's not exaggeration. That's coming from somebody who's watched a lot of NFL. games. My guest is a friend of mine right now, Tim Murray. Tim, of course, was in D.C. for a while. I wish he were still here. Tim is the co-host of the nightcap 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Eastern on the Visa Network

with former NFL quarterback Sean King. You should follow Tim on Twitter at 1 Tim Murray. He's my college football friend. He's my gambling friend. But we're going to start before we get to the National Championship game tonight by talking about what was a crazy NFL Sunday. And we'll start with that game. I touched on it briefly in the open, but I wanted to save it because I thought the conversation was better to have with someone else. By the way, Tim, in Vegas, what was, I'm just curious. Like, was there big buzz and has there been big buzz for the Raiders out there?

And what was the buildup for the game last night? I felt like it was a little bit bigger of a buildup yesterday. With, you know, the Chargers being here, being a division rival, we know that the Chargers don't have a massive fan base. But, you know, for the most part this year, Kevin, my feeling has been a lot of these games in Washington was here, Chicago was here, a lot of these games in the middle of the season, were more so for these season ticket holders to make their money back.

And they were unable to do so last year with no fans. But I felt like last night you did have that real feel of a great atmosphere. There was some buzz in town with the Raiders. So, yeah, I mean, it's been obviously a tumultuous year for the organization on many fronts, with, you know, with the tragedy and with, you know, the firings and all of that. So for them to end up, you know, making the playoffs in that game last night, we're going to get into it, but, you know, last night we put our little guy to bed and my wife puts on a movie. We got the two screens going. And I'm, you know, half eye on the movie but

watching the game. I'm like, this game is an all-timer. She's like, what? This is the craziest games I have watched in a long, long time. So I'm with you, man. That game was phenomenal. And to see it to end the way that it did was, you were wondering, I did at least, after the Chargers hit that second field goal and they're at midfield, the Raiders, I'm thinking, this is going to happen. They're just going to go tie this game and we're going to have the crazy ending of a tie and both these teams make the playoff. Yeah, there's so much to get to on this game. By the way, just as a quick aside, I know Tim and I will text back and forth many times a day sometimes with respect to point spreads and games and gambling. I texted you yesterday morning that Marilyn

was only a one-point dog. They actually went off as a one-point favorite last night. So I lost. I played Maryland minus one thinking that that line was incorrect. I lost too. I had Maryland at a pick and, you know,

the way our minds work and we've got a couple other friends that I know, I share some texts with a mutual friend of ours too about point spreads. and yeah, everyone was, we were all on Maryland. I mean, you know, we could get into that later. I don't know, to bore people, but there were some games this week in college basketball that won and some that did, you know, with our theory.

Yeah, that's why they call gambling. There's no theory that is completely bulletproof. Let's get back to last night. So for those that didn't stay up and watch it, you've probably at this point heard a lot about it. There were lots of different things in the game. There were controversial moments. There were moments where, you know, I think people are missing out on what actually happened. But let me begin with this.

Going into the game, you know, everybody, I think, at that point, knew that because the Colts had been absolutely bum rushed in Jacksonville, you know, another one of those shocking NFL results this year. By the way, Timmy, as an aside, and this would be for your network. Maybe Aaron produces Tim's show, too. I think many of you know that. This should be research on how many outright double-digit winners, underdog winners there were this year. I think it might be a record.

And the size of the underdog, like Jacksonville beat Buffalo and they beat Indy at home as one of the worst teams in the league all year long, although the Giants, clearly the worst team in the league at the end of the year. But anyway, after Indy lost yesterday and Pittsburgh won, last night's game going into it, was an odd circumstance. The winner advanced to the postseason. The loser was out, but if the game ended in a tie, both the Raiders and the Chargers would go to the playoffs, and Pittsburgh would not. So there were all these theories about, oh my God, are they going to try to tie? Are they going to collude together to make sure that both of them end up in the postseason? Well, that didn't happen. And I didn't expect it to happen at all. The game was intense from the beginning. The Raiders took a 10-0 lead. The Chargers came back and

took a 14-10 lead. There was a call at the end of the first half that is, I thought it was a terrible pass interference call. On the Raiders trailing 14 to 10, they were trying to get in field. goal range, Derek Carr gets flush from the pocket, Tim, throws the ball away from the 40-yard line into the end zone, and meantime, Zay Jones is interfered with by Chris Harris 20 yards away from where the ball landed. Usually we think in terms of uncatchable passes as balls that go sailing over the heads of receivers. In this particular case, there was no chance that this ball was catchable, but they called DPI first and goal. The Raiders take the lead 17, 14.

Then they build a 29 to 14 lead in the game. One of the crazy plays is that the Chargers down 17 to 14 in the third quarter have a fourth, and I'm telling you it was closer to two than it was one. It was one and a half from their own 18-yard line. And Brandon Staley goes for it. Now, I'm just curious because I don't follow, and I'm not really interested in what the analytics people have to say. I'm all for all the information, as everybody who listens knows, but context means just as much to me. Did anybody last night, Tim, say about fourth and one from their own 18-yard line, and by the way, it was longer than one, in a three-point game in the third quarter, did any of the analytics people say, yeah, that was the right move?

I don't know the answer to this. I don't either. And Brandon Staley certainly has added some fuel to the anti-analytical crowd. I feel like I'm kind of in the middle. I see advantages of it, you know, going for it, fourth and one at your own 36-yard, or at your opponent's 36-yard line, things like that. We have evolved over years, I feel like. But that seemed crazy to me.

And, like, you know, going back to the Chiefs game, that Thursday night, you know, them not kicking the field goal right before the end of the half, I thought was a dumb move because, you know, one of the things, Kevin, the analytics have said, is if you go for it on fourth and goal from the one and you don't get it, you're at least giving your opponent horrendous field position, right? And you still, in theory, could get the ball back with good field position. But at the end of the half, that is negated because it's halftime. So that was one that I was critical of Staley for. But I mean, yeah, I don't think there was a defense for that.

Maybe there was. I didn't see it. But, you know, I mean, look, he went for it on fourth and two from his own, you know, from the 19. And then they were, you know, were able to score with an Austin Echler touchdown that was in the first half. So their second touchdown of the game. So, you know, going forward has proven to be right at times for him. but, you know, I just want to say the fourth down conversions by Herbert in that game. Yeah, we're going to get.

Insane. I mean, that was the only fourth down they didn't get last night. They were six or seven. And a lot of them were fourth and 12, fourth and 18. I mean, it was ridiculous the plays that they were making, especially on that final drive. Yeah, I want to get to all of that. Here's the bottom line. Fourth and a long one closer to one and a half from your own 18 yards.

line. The upside is, okay, we're now first and ten from our own 20, and we still have 80 yards to go in a three-point deficit right now. No. Now, kudos to the Chargers defense. They stepped up. They held them to a field goal. Anyway, this game was basically kind of over. This is what, this is part of the greatness and the memorable moments of the game that will get, you know, kind of backburnered because of the crazy ending to the game. But the Chargers were down by 15 with half the quarter left. And they went on a 14-place 75-yard drive. We're on a fourth and 21 at the Vegas 23-yard line. Justin Herbert threw a touchdown pass to Josh Palmer from 23 yards out. It's fourth and 21. So if they don't get it, the game's over right there. They're four and a half minutes left.

And even if they do get it, they're still going to have to convert a two-point conversion with one of the scores and get the ball back. Anyway, they went for two in that moment. I actually think this is another interesting conversation about the down 15, when to go for the two. Do you go for it after your first score or after your second score? They went for it after their first score and they made it. So now it was 29-22. If they missed it, they were down nine, and they would know exactly what they needed to do. They would have needed two more possessions, obviously, in the game. I think, though, at 29-21, even though it's technically not, you know, a one-score game the way people think about it, because a two-point conversion is 50-50, typically, in some cases, less than that. So it might be a two-score

game at an eight-point deficit, but I think it adds context and pressure to the other team. When you're up 29, 21 versus kind of carefree up nine thinking the game's over. So I think it's better to kick there. But, you know, it depends also, again, context. Do you have the right play? Is it the right situation? You've just been on the field on a long drive of 75 yards, 14 plays. So you may think you've got the defense gassed.

You just shocked them with a fourth and 21 touchdown pass. I don't know. What do you think? I'm of the mindset that you are. I've always been of the belief you don't go for two until you have to go for two. But I understand that I'm starting to come around to the mindset that, you know, Brandon Staley and plenty of other coaches, and I'm sure our good friend Al Galdi is of the mindset, too, that you want to know what you have to do with it's in front of you. And the statistics say that it's a 50-50 proposition or maybe it's slightly better

that you get a two-point conversion to what does it matter when you make it. But I was always of the belief, wait until you have to, give your defense maybe a little added motivation. Because if it's 29-20 and you don't get the on-size kick or, you know, you still need two scores. So I'm kind of old-school in that regard. I understand the new way of thinking of it. A lot of coaches are doing it, you know, especially like down 14 people are going for two nowadays. because if you don't get it, you still, the odds say it's 50-50 that you're going to get it, and then if you score another touchdown, you're going to get it.

So, you know, that's where it's pretty interesting. So I wouldn't have gone for two, but, you know, here's the fascinating part about this all is at 29, 28th, and Van Pelt mentioned this last night on his, on Sports Center, I would have went for two with no time left on the clock. I want to get to that. Let me just mention that basically half the league is less than 50% on two-point conversions this year. The Chargers after last night moved up to 14th. They were actually, I think, below 50% before last night. And they went for, you know, seven and got six of them, which is amazing.

But I want to just add one thing. I think 29-21 puts more pressure on the other. team. But again, if, you know, you felt you had them worn down and you've got the right play. By the way, the right play didn't work on the, you know, he hit Echler for a two-point conversion throw unlike his fourth read, you know, as he was getting flushed and he was getting hit from behind. It was a phenomenal play by Herbert. I think the bigger mistake teams make, by the way, I kind of understand the down 14. I do. And going for the two after that first touchdown. But again, context is part of the decision making, I think. I think the bigger mistake teams make is when they're down

eight, they play it too often as if it is a one-score game. When the odds are that it probably is a two-score game, and I think that sometimes they don't hurry enough, sometimes they use timeouts that they're going to need after they miss the two-point conversion. So I think that's the bigger mistake teams make. When they're down eight, they very much treat it like the final possession when many times it really isn't. And the odds are that it won't be the final possession. But anyway, when they got the ball back after forcing a punt, they had two minutes and five seconds to go from their own 17. That was after, by the way, Joey Bosa knocked the ball out of Carr's hands. And it was nearly, it should have been recovered by the Chargers' defensive, other defensive

linemen. Then starts a drive that was one of the all-time epic drives in a regular season, you know, win or go home, tire, go home game. They start from their own 17-yard line. They ran 19 plays in two minutes and five seconds of NFL clock time. 83 yards they traveled. They converted a fourth and 10 from their own 17. They converted a fourth and 10 from their own 28, courtesy of a defensive holding penalty.

They converted a fourth and 10 at the Vegas. on a 14-yard pass from Herbert. And then with five seconds left at the Vegas 12-yard line, Herbert threw a touchdown pass to Mike Williams on the final play of regulation. Before we get to the should they or shouldn't they on the two-point there, what's remarkable about this drive is it took like 25 minutes of real time, even though it was only two minutes and six seconds of clock time. and Justin Herbert was five of 19 on the drive.

He had 14 incomplete passes on the drive. Justin Herbert in this game, people, through 30 incompletions. 30 incompletions. He was 34 of 64 for 383 and three touchdowns. But every big play on that final drive, he made a play. He was incredible. the team was physically exhausted. One of the more remarkable parts of that drive, Timmy, is that they could barely make it back to the huddle after the incompletions. I mean,

Keenan Allen could barely move. Mike Williams could barely run. I mean, they were exhausted. So was Herbert. I mean, Jared Cook sometimes looked like he was going to vomit on the field as he was barely making it back to the huddle. So it was amazing that they, converted these plays, which is one of the reasons, I think, they kicked it. I don't think, well, who knows with Brandon Staley? I don't think their chances of converting a two-point conversion at that point were going to be very good. They had just done it the time before. But remember, tying was a benefit to them when it went to overtime and their opponent. So that had to come into the thinking as well. So I think they 100% did the right thing, kicking the extra point,

and not going for two and having their season rest on one play where they were physically spent at the end of that drive. And by the way, both teams would have benefited from a tie in overtime. Yeah, I think there was part of Brandon Staley that in the back of his mind probably thought maybe once we get to overtime, we'll kind of look eye to eye across the field from each other and say, hey, let's just do this thing and get to get to the playoffs. So, I mean, there might have been part of that. And, yeah, I think that's a great point that you make about, you know, just the physical exhaustion of the Chargers. But, yeah, that drive was epic. I mean, you know, the past completion to the sideline to Guyton, which was reviewed right before the touchdown, was there was a, I mean, that's a huge throw.

it's from one hash mark to the other side line. He makes the catch. He rolls out of bounds. He stops the clock. If they don't stop the clock there, they're out of timeout. The game's over. So, I mean, it was just wild to watch that whole drive. And, yeah, and then

overtime. And that's certainly one being criticized. You know, it's funny, though, is everyone is taking the one bite from Derek Carr, which is where he says to Michelle Tafoya that the timeout changed their

strategy. But if you listen to the entire thing, he says, we wanted to win the game. So they were going to try to win the game regardless. People keep taking that. And then I guess there was a clip that they showed before or after the DeFoya interview. I think it was Austin Echler talking to someone later. And Austin Ecclitt said, wait, what you were going to, and I don't know. I think Vasatia, and you made the point on Twitter, and

I think it's correct. If you're the Raiders and you've got a chance to win and go play Cincinnati, you'd rather play Cincinnati than play Kansas City. So I think they were going to attempt a field goal regardless there. And if people look back at the play, the reason Staley called timeout so late was because there was a wide receiver for the Raiders completely unguarded. The chargers were confused on that play.

They didn't know what was going on. And I think that's why ultimately Staley called the timeout. Yeah, so you nailed it. I mean, a lot of, the game goes to overtime. The Raiders kick a field goal, the Chargers kick a field goal. By the way, Dustin Hopkins with a couple of big kicks, the extra point to force overtime, and then the field goal in overtime to tie it. By the way, the Carlson field goal that he made in overtime barely snuck inside the upright.

And then Hopkins sort of the same thing. Anyway, let's cut to the final moment. So you get to the two-minute warning in overtime, and the Raiders are at the Chargers' 45-yard line first and 10. I still don't understand, as you mentioned, and I tweeted this out, I still don't understand why during the game, Collinsworth and Michaels, and all morning long, I was watching various discussions about this game last night and this morning. There was a significant miss, I think, from a lot of people.

Sure, the Raiders didn't want to take an unnecessary risk that could have cost them, you know, a tie and an automatic birth in the postseason, even though it meant that the Chargers would go as well. But the incentive to win the game for the Raiders was being the five-seed and playing at Cincinnati next weekend versus being the seven-seed if they had tied and going to Arrowhead next weekend. The difference is that Kansas City is a seasoned veteran playoff team that outscored the Raiders in two games over the last month and a half, 89 to 23. At Cincinnati, they got beat pretty soundly by the Bengals too about a month ago, but the Cincinnati Bengals are making their first ever playoff birth. I don't think anybody out there listening would think that, you know, the Raiders or anybody would write. play at Arrowhead versus playing against Cincinnati. I'm not saying the Raiders are going to beat Cincinnati. I'm just saying it's better to beat a five seed and play at Cincinnati than play at Kansas

City. Anyway, nobody seemed to emphasize that point. I'm sure some people did. I just didn't hear it on the broadcast or catch it this morning. But to your point, Brandon Staley's taking a massive beating. I saw Rex Ryan this morning going off on him for calling a time out with. four seconds left on the play clock before a third down and four at the Chargers 39 yard lines. So what was going on for those that missed it is the clock was just running.

Nobody was using timeouts. And it looked like unless the Raiders broke off a big play, you know, that both teams were going to be content if it ended this way in a tie because they understood nobody wanted to take a major risk. So on third and four at the Chargers' 39-yard line, play clock is ticking down, down to four seconds, 38 seconds left on the game clock before a third down and four, and the Chargers call the timeout. Now, what Tim just pointed out is true. There was somebody wide open, but beyond that, this was a big play for the Chargers, too, because it's not like they call the time out to try to get the ball back to win the game.

And the people that are saying, Brandon Stanley called a timeout because he was hoping that he'd get the ball back with a chance to win the game. No, no, no, no. He's praying for a tie there, hopefully, unless he's an idiot. But it's not like he called a time out with a minute to go. The play clock got down. He had somebody out of position. They were confused defensively. And he didn't want, you know, Josh Jacobs to rip off a long run, maybe a touchdown run or maybe a run that put him in easy field goal range.

So he called the time out. The Raiders were going to run a play there, people. They were lined up to run the play that they ran after the timeout, which was a handoff to Josh Jacobs. Now, the question is, right, Tim, if Jacobs had been stopped, let's say at the line of scrimmage, and it would have been a 56-57-yard field goal. Would the Raiders have chanced that?

I don't know. But let's just say that there was a better chance they would have let the clock run out in that scenario than in the one that took place. The one that took place is Josh Jacobs ripped off a 10-yard run. That's why the Raiders were in field goal range. 47 yards for Carlson in that building is like 90%. And they were going to get to go to Cincinnati instead of Kansas City. And the likelihood of a block and a return for a score, come on.

So I'm with you. Basatia afterwards said we were considering letting the clock go out because they weren't calling timeouts, which they weren't initially. But ultimately, I think that the big thing was Josh Jacobs had a 10-yard run on 3rd and 4. If the Chargers stop him for no gain or a 1-yard gain, maybe the Raiders let the clock run out. Maybe they put Carlson out there for a 55-56-yarder, you know, because he can kick it that far. but I don't buy this Brandon Staley's timeout cost the Chargers a playoff berth. I don't buy that at all.

No, and you listen to Derek Carr. I mean, Derek Carr, everyone, like I said earlier, everyone is clipping off the part where he said it changed the strategy, but if you listen to the entire clip to the Shelfthafoya, he said we wanted to win the football game, and they were going to run it, they were going to be conservative, they weren't going to throw the football, they were going to run it, And we don't know if Carlson or if Jacobs was stopped, if they would have ultimately decided to kick the ball.

I think they would have tried it. I really do. Daniel Carlson, I believe, has not missed a field goal inside a Leeson Stadium. And, you know, for 54 yards or whatever, if he, you know, Jacobs got two yards, I think they would have tried it. I do. So we'll never know. And, you know, this is a good day for the anti-analytic crowd because Brandon Staley kind of is on certainly on one side of. the extreme. But, you know, I think Rick Vasachi, Rich Vasachi, and I think the Raiders were

going to try to kick that field goal regardless, because I do think it was in their back of their mind. We'd much rather go to Cincinnati than have to go to Kansas City. You know, they're about six and a half point underdog right now to Cincinnati. Well, Kansas City is a, you know, two-touchdown favorite against Pittsburgh. They probably would have been around the same against Kansas City. So, yeah, I think ultimately, it was not Brandon Staley's timeout that is the reason the chargers are not in the playoff. Yeah, I think it's interesting.

I think you're right. I think if Jacobs gets like three yards, four yards, you know, I think they try it. I think they try it anyway. I think if it's 54-50, I do. I think if he gets stuffed and we're looking at 57 yards where the ball's got to come out, maybe a little harder, power kick, maybe low, I don't know. Maybe they don't, you know, take a shot at the one play that could knock him out, which is a block field goal return, but really what are the odds of that?

I actually had this thought not in the moment, but afterwards, that what the Chargers should have done, actually, is jumped off sides, block the kick, roughed the kicker hard. Hard. I'm being serious. A lot of people were like, a lot of people were like, a lot of people were like, what do you, you want to cheat, you want to hurt somebody? I don't want to hurt the kicker.

But I want, if I have my corner rusher go off sides and charge hard at the ball in the kicker and create a mess back there after a block kick, even though we get flagged and it's a 42-yarder, maybe Bissaccia then says, shit, I'm not going to put my kicker in harm's way. Or maybe the kickers hurt. And you get them to take a knee. I mean, I didn't think of that in the moment. I thought of that shortly afterwards. But the bottom line is, is that, look, Brandon Staley's fourth and one from his own 18 is reckless to me. That's not aggressive. That's reckless. The timeout at the end, regardless of what Derek Carr or Basacci or, you know, Echler was talking to some rater or player about, the bottom line is I'm with Tim on this. I think if they get a couple of yards and they got 10, I think they're sending Carlson out there to win it. and if he gets nothing or if he gets stuffed in the backfield for a two-yard loss and the ball's back at the 42-yard line, okay, then maybe the clock just runs out.

But it was one of, it was just, it was just such a great football game and such a memorable game for Herbert reasons, for, you know, analytics reasons, and then for the tie versus the, you know, the win situation and overtime game going to the end. was just a classic. It was, it wasn't the best played game of all time, but it was one of the most memorable regular season games. Well, not, this is not one. And I said this in the open, Tim, we're creatures of recency in this business. We all want to say we saw it. We were there for it. We were there for the worst thing ever. We were there for the greatest thing. Last night, it's not hyperbole. That was a classic, an all-time classic. And one other quick just take away from this game because so many people, Skins fans are like, what about Derek Carr? You know, it's always

what a, I'm not a Derek Carr fan. I think he's a great leader, and trust me, he'd be a major upgrade over what we have here now. I'm not debating that. I just don't love him. There's something about him. He panics a little bit too much. I don't think he's, I just think he's okay. I mean, I don't think he's a top 10 quarterback. I think he's like a top half of the league quarterback, but I don't think he's great. Do you like him or not? I do, but I think, and I know people's ears will, you know, start to melt.

I think he's comparable, if not a slightly downgrade from Kirk Cousin, to be honest. I mean, he's had some awful games this year. And, you know, he is a really good leader, which, you know, And I think the locker room rallies behind him quite a bit, but I'm not in love with Derek Carr. And I think the Raiders will ultimately keep him. Can I just say something real quick, though? Yeah. That game right there, that game on Sunday night, is why, in every single year,

why the national championship being the Monday after a NFL day is terrible. Why is this game on Monday? Every show you're watching this morning, what are we doing? I know. We're talking about an NFL game. This is the biggest college football game of the year, and it's on a Monday following what usually was Wild Card Weekend. Now it's Week 18.

You've got all of these scenarios. You've got the new playoff racket. People want to talk about it. This is moronic, and the college football championship should be on Thursday night, should be on a Saturday. You know, what if it was on Thursday this upcoming week, Kevin? We would talk all day NFL today, and then Tuesday and Wednesday, and Wednesday we would talk college football, Georgia, Alabama,

the buildup. You'd watch that game like crazy because it's Thursday night. It being on Monday is a disservice to college football, in my opinion. And they have continued to step on their own toes putting these college football playoff games on New Year's Eve year after year like a bunch of morons and the ratings are down. And here it is again on a Monday. And we're talking about the Raiders Chargers game and the playoff bracket. And that makes all the sense in the world. And you've got the biggest college football game of the year. It's just crazy to me. So what would you put it on this Monday? So what are the choices? Give me a multiple choice on the dates. All right. Let's do. You could have played it. You don't need Cowboys and Eagles on January 8th.

You could have put it on Saturday. And I think that would have been a monster number. It plays on Saturday every single year. So put it on January 8th by itself. You know, people say, well, the NFL goes on to Saturday. The only reason the NFL goes on to Saturdays in in late December's because there's no college football. That's right. They conceded January 1st to college football this year. There were no Saturday games on January 1st, so they could have gone January 8th, this most recent Saturday, or what if they pushed it out to Thursday, January 13th? And you had that whole couple of days to build up, and then we had national championship

on Thursday the 13th, day off to prepare for playoffs, two games on Saturday, NFL, three games on Sunday. on Monday. I mean, I think that would be huge too. I think Monday, I'm sure the ratings will be fine, but there's no buildup. There's no buzz. You know, people are going to go into this game and say, oh, yeah, there's a national championship here today. So in my opinion, you can either do this most recent Saturday, the 8th. You don't need two to NFL games there, or you put it, push it back a couple days to the 13th on a Thursday. I am with you. Now, keep in mind, in years past, this would have been wild card weekend.

you know, for the NFL. So there would have been all Saturday and all Sunday, so you couldn't have done Saturday. This was the first year you could do this. I think Thursday would be great. So I think Saturday night, even though it's only a week or it would have been eight days because the semifinal games were played on the 31st this year.

And I think that's part of it, is that they want a little bit more of a turnaround teams to rest and get ready for, you know, the biggest game of the year. I have often thought that the championship game sometimes is anticlimactic to begin with because there's so much time between the semifinals and the actual championship game. I think this year, Saturday night would have been a home run. And I think they should have played it on Saturday night or on Friday night, which again would have only been a week after the semifinal games.

but this Monday night, I didn't even, I mean, you know how much I am looking forward to this game like you are. I didn't even mention it on the radio show. Now, I had a carved out half of a segment to do it, but I never got to it. And you're 100% right. Not only is it the follow-up to what was a wild final NFL Sunday of the year, but you've got Black Monday with all the coaching changes in firing. By the way, why is Brian Flores out in Miami?

I think he's a good coach. I don't know how that happened. I initially thought it was the, I thought it was going to be because of Jim Harbaugh. But apparently that's not happening. Stephen Ross has now come out and said that he's not taking Jim Harbaugh from Michigan. For those who don't know, Stephen Ross is the biggest donor in the University of Michigan's history. He's donated almost a half a billion dollars to the school. So that was the thought that Miami would go get Jim Harbaugh

because of Stephen Ross's ties from Michigan. But apparently Stephen Ross is flat out said, I'm not taking Jim Harbaugh from Michigan. So if that's out the window, I don't know what he's doing. I don't get it. Brian Flores, I know it was a little bit of a disappointing year, but they finished strong, you know, and for three years down there,

and he came into an absolute disaster, and he got back to respectability, and they had 10 wins last year. They had nine this year. So the guy ended up 19 and 14? Is that right? 19 and 14, right? So they went 10 and 6 and then 9 and 8.

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. That was surprising. But yeah, once again, to your point, I mean, ESPN has these games, right? ESPN loves, there's no network that promotes more than ESPN. I mean, that's what they do. And what are they going to do all day today?

They're going to have Schefteron to talk about the firings. They're going to have all these other coaches and players to react to Brandon Staley and the playoffs and they have a playoff game. They have that Monday nighter. Oh, by the way, tonight, make sure you're watching. We've got Alabama and Georgia, which, by the way, the SEC championship year after year is the most watch regular season game. You've got a rematch of that.

There's a lot of excitement around it. And, yeah, no one we're going to talk about. We're going to in three minutes. but I just wanted to mention the other NFL games. First of all, indie getting beat like that was an embarrassment. By the way, I give Jacksonville and Detroit all the credit in the world. Now, Detroit, Green Bay had nothing to play for, but, you know, they certainly had some draft positioning at stake. But the Jags to come out, Trevor Lawrence went 11 for 11 to open up this game.

And Carson Wentz was terrible in this game. The Colts and the Chargers, the Chargers losing to Houston a couple of weeks ago really was the game that cost them, okay? And the Colts losing to the Raiders last week at home. And I know, look, the Raiders deserved it. But the Raiders were done a couple of weeks ago until they had the Monday afternoon game against the Browns. You know, they won that game. And then they, you know, they barely beat the Broncos. then they barely beat the Colts

and then they beat the Chargers. Listen to this. After losing to the Chiefs 48-9, the Raiders finished the season on a four-game win streak. There are four wins by an aggregate of 12 points, so an average of three per game. All of them essentially coming down to the wire. But that's a terrible loss,

and Carson Wentz was terrible in the game. The 49ers and the Rams, that is another, on the same day, you had Baltimore and Pittsburgh in a typical Raven Steelers 16-13 game. I'd like to know how many times Raiders Steelers has ended in a three-point margin of a final margin, and how many times it's either been 16 to 13 or 13 to 10. Doesn't it seem like that's like the score of every single one of their games? Yeah. But that game, by the way, so you get Rathlisberger.

into the postseason. Brendan Dar, my producer and radio, said, great, he's going to go 35 of 49 for 122 yards against the Chiefs. I mean, that's unfortunate. He made some big throws in the game. But the Rams 49ers game, wow, what a comeback by San Francisco. Their tying drive down 17, 10 in the second half was 10 runs, 10 runs, which converted, I think ended up in three first downs,

and then a Debo Samuel pass to Joanne Jennings for the touchdown. By the way, Tim, how about this? So Matt Stafford leads him on a 92-yard drive after Jalen Ramsey interception at 1717. Matt Stafford, to me, has had a real rough last month. And yet, he's got more fourth quarter and overtime comebacks of any quarterback since he entered the league in 2009. Nine plays 92 yards and an absolute dime on third and gold to Cooper Cup with two and a half minutes to go for a 2417 lead. The 49ers go three and out. There's a minute 56 left after an incompletion. It's fourth and 18. They've got

three timeouts left. Brandon Staley would have gone for it. And you know what? Justin Herbert probably would have gotten it. But the 49ers punted. And the Rams, they Stop the Rams on three straight plays, and Garoppolo went 88 yards in a minute and a half with no timeouts left. And forced overtime. And then the 49ers won it in overtime, 2724, to snag the last playoff spot from the Saints who had already, you know, gotten into position with a 49ers lost to grab that last spot. And I think Garapolo is an interesting conversation right now. There are times when I watch him and I think, oh my God, no way would I want him. And then there are other times I watch him and I'm like, he's a badass at times. Like he has a, he's got an incredibly short memory.

He is hyper confident. He's got a good arm and a quick release. He's just not accurate all the time. But that drive at the end with the playoffs on the line, with their season on the line, was incredible. Incredible. What do you think of Jimmy G? Because he might be available. I'm not the biggest Jimmy G. fan.

I mean, you could do worse. And clearly he's going to be open for discussion because you don't trade up to go get Trey Lance and give up the draft capital that you do to keep Jimmy G around. So there's going to be a market for him

and there are plenty of teams that need quarterbacks. So I don't necessarily, and I'm about to say something, which is crazy because he was one good throw away from winning a Super Bowl. I don't know if he win a Super Bowl with him, but, I mean, like I said, I'm contradicting myself

because if he makes a better throw three years ago, 49ers win the Super Bowl. So, yeah, I mean, I think he kind of falls in the Derek Carr's Cousins camp. I think he's very solid, but I don't think he's someone that you go nuts over, I mean, I'd certainly rather have him than Baker Mayfield, for instance, who's probably going to get paid at some point. So that drive, though, was a thing of beauty.

I had the 49ers, so I was really hoping for him. That was a big one for me, personally. But I tell you what, man, Cowboys can't be thrilled. You know, they have to play. I much rather play the Saints than the 49ers. That 49ers team, now that they're healthy and they've got a run game, they're not an easy matchup. And I think the 49ers are definitely live, and I think that number is telling you that they're live, being the fact that the 49ers are only a three-point underdog at Dallas. The 49ers, man, look, bottom line is Mike, Kyle, everybody off of Mike's tree, Stefansky, they all know how to run the football.

It's amazing the way they run the football in San Francisco. It was so impressive on that one drive. By the way, personally, I like cousins more than Carr and Garoppolo. And I think right now, Kyle, if he didn't have Trey Lance, would say, yeah, Jimmy G for Kirk, please. The thing that Jimmy G's benefited from is Kyle is a head coach, that running game, and a dominant at times when they've been healthy defense. But there's something about him that I do like. Let me put it this way. I think he's better than most people think he is.

And I think Carr is a little bit worse than most people think he is. Kirk Cousins, I'm not objective. I think if Kirk were in San Francisco, he'd already have a Super Bowl win under his belt. And I think that they would have been a division winner this year with two more wins. That's probably crazy to say. Whatever, I don't care. Okay.

So did we miss anything in the NFL? the only other thing I was going to say is maybe the best young quarterback of the year this year in the NFL was Davis Mills. And he put on a show yesterday for the Texans who were down 21-0 in a game that Tennessee had to have to lock up the one-seat. And Davis-Mills threw three touchdowns, no picks over 300 yards, and they pushed Tennessee. They lost 28-25. But of all the quarterbacks taken, you know, in this last year's draft, I mean, I'm kind of, you know, into Justin Fields a little bit, especially if they get a good hire here. But man, Mills really came on for Houston.

I'm sure they don't want to give up to Sean Watson, but they got a nice young quarterback in Davis Mills. Did I miss anything else from the NFL yesterday? No, I don't think so. Yeah, I mean, the Colts was a disaster. It'll be a fun final episode of Hard Knocks to watch that. I have not been watching that. It's actually pretty good. I got into it. Stanford Steve was talking about it on his podcast.

I'm like, oh, check it out, and I watched a couple episodes this weekend. It's interesting. I mean, to me, it's fascinating because they're in season. But no, I think you've pretty much locked it all up. Yeah. By the way, I did want to mention this, that Seattle finished the season scoring 89 points in two games. They scored 51 against the Lions last week and 38 against the Cardinals. yesterday in a game that Arizona, you know, Arizona would have won the division, you know, had they won the game. And the, I wonder whether or not they're going to run this back with Pete Carroll and with Russell Wilson and everybody.

They had a lot of injuries on that team. They had several close losses, including Keir, you know, when they weren't very good, really. I mean, you look at Seattle's season, they lost a three-point game to the Titans. They lost a three-point game to the Steelers, a three-point game to the Saints with no Russell Wilson when they were starting. What's his face? The former Jet quarterback. Gino Smith was starting those games earlier in the year.

Russell Wilson finished with kind of a bang, and they really, Rashad Penny really finished up with a hell of a game. His last two games were 170 yards and 190 yards. he literally rushed for 360 yards in his last two games. Actually, I'm pulling up his box score right now. Last three games, 17 for 135, 25 for 170, and 23 for 190 for Rashad Penny. That's a pretty good stretch of football. The problem is he's not always healthy, and they were a banged-up team this year. All right, tonight's championship game, here we go. The first go-round to me was a shocking result, which makes the point spread tonight to me reek a little bit. I'll let you know in my last segment, whether or not it's a smell test pick.

No, I'll let you know now. I'm not playing this game. I don't like the game. Come on. No, I do like Georgia a little bit. I'd lean heavily to Georgia. This is a definition of spells. No, it is.

I know, but it's a championship game. Super Bowl games and championship games. I say, oh, don't say that. I had Tampa. I know. I had Tampa in the under in the first half and for the game. I went four and O in the Super Bowl last year. I don't.

By the way, before we get into the analysis, this is, in addition to the smell test, I jokingly say this is the neighbor play. This is when your neighbor, who you don't talk sports with comes over. Hey, Kevin, is Alabama really? an underdog? Oh my God. Jimmy, Alabama on the money line.

They're going to win this. This is the neighbor special. This is smell test written all over it. This is why you have that segment. I'm very, I'm disappointed in you that you don't have this in the smell test. It's a surprise to me, too,

because when the line came out, I said on the show, I go, Georgia for the maximum allowed. You know, the line is down to two and a half, which means there's some sharp money. It is back up to three. Okay. Well, look, if it stays at three or if it were to, I mean, as you know, this is weird thinking. If it were going to go to three and a half before kickoff, I'd be all over Georgia. I think it's going to stay right here. I think I told you this. Obviously, I thought Georgia was the right play against Michigan, but I didn't give it out.

And I didn't give out Cincinnati either. And I thought Cincinnati looked right to at 13. and a half. So I would have split smell test-wise. I didn't give out either game. I played the over in the Michigan-Georgia game, which should have sailed over, and it didn't. I mean, there was just no... That was such

a mismatch. I can't believe how much of a mismatch that was. I'm surprised that you didn't give out Georgia. That was a very, very public. Public dog, and I thought the line, you know, staying at seven and a half was indicated. I know. I know.

And I played Georgia. I played under Cincinnati and Alabama. I did not play that game side because I felt like there was actually sharp money coming in on Cincinnati late. And that game closed like 12 and a half. I know. So I didn't play that side. You know, what's interesting, we can get into just a breakdown in this game shortly. But, you know, line-wise, early on, there was a ton of sharp money.

I had a text from an odds maker last week when this game first posted and said all our respected money is on Georgia. once it got the three, that's where the respected money stopped. And you always hear, you know, sharp money, sharp money, sharp money. When did they get in? They got in at two and a half or two or one and a half when it posted. Once it got to three, they stopped, and that's where the public started firing. But the majority of shops I look at right now at this moment in time, I'll pull it up. We look at Circa here in Las Vegas is three minus 105.

So a little juice to Alabama. The Westgate is three. South Point is three. Sears is three. Offshore shop, three mostly. So it's more or less up to three now. So just back to the semifinals, if I had given out the two smell test picks,

look, here was the bottom line. Georgia definitely fit the smell test, but so did Cincinnati. And so, but personally, I just, and I don't do this very often, I didn't like either game personally. I liked the over in the Georgia-Michigan game because I thought there were a lot of people

that liked under in that game. So I didn't give either one of them out. And here's the other thing too. I have this new part of my handicapping philosophy. On a smell test pick, if I start to question it at all, then I just go to this default. Who's got the better quarterback? Because what worries me about tonight and giving Georgia out

is that it's not even close. Bryce Young is the better quarterback. And by the way, that's one of the hesitations I had with Georgia in the semifinals. I just didn't think Stetson Bennett was very good. And he played a great game against Michigan. And by the way, a playmaking game against Michigan where he made throws, but he used his legs.

He was really outstanding. I just don't think he's very good, and I think Bryce Young is phenomenal. And in that SEC title game, I mean, Georgia kind of looked, actually, Georgia didn't look right in that game. Bama was the lean in that game just because they were getting six and people still kind of like Georgia. But I think I'm staying off the game tonight. I think last year in the Super Bowl, Tampa fit the smell test because the chiefs were the chiefs. And I also had something going for me, a quarterback, which was Brady. I don't like the game personally either way tonight.

But you're right. This should fit the smell test criteria. And if it stays at three, I'll probably just play it on general principle. But I'm not giving it out. Tell me about the matchup. What will make tonight different than the SEC title game where Alabama rolled up 41 points? and destroyed Georgia.

Yeah, there's a lot of worries. And, you know, the basic ones are the sidelines advantage to Alabama. Nick Saban is undefeated against Kirby Smart. It's 5-1 since 2008, straight up as an underdog. And Kirby Smart has failed to beat his former boss. The quarterback situation, obviously, is an advantage towards Alabama, big time. Alabama's banged up. You know, people aren't really talking about this.

They got two offensive linemen that were nicked up, their right tackle and their right guard. Both are listed as questionable. I imagine they'll play, but at what percentage are they? I mean, you're going up against a Georgia offensive line full of just NFL talent, and you're not 100%. You know, what's crazy, Kevin, is that Georgia is the only team this year to not sack Bryce Young. Everyone else sack Bryce Young. So Bill O'Brien had a masterpiece in the SEC championship.

You know, the loss of John Metschie, some people will say it's no big deal. You have James and Williams. I think it's a massive deal. James, uh, uh, METI, for those who don't know. How much of the game did he miss against Georgia? He missed half the game. Yeah. And he had, but he had six catches for 97 yards and a touchdown.

Right, right. He did have that touchdown on the first half. So he's gone and, you know, they were able to overcome that, but they didn't really throw the ball against Cincinnati. Now, Cincinnati does have, in my opinion, the best tandem of course. cornerback in the country, Kobe Bryant and Gardner there. But I think that the loss of that Metschi is a big deal. Additionally, Alabama is missing two corners, or definitely missing one and Josh Job. Jalen Armour Davis is dealing with a hip injury. He was in and out against

Cincinnati. And then I think George Pickin, his return is kind of getting overlooked. He came off an ACL injury that he had in March. He made his season debut against George. Tech, played a little bit against Cincinnati, had a 37-yard reception in that team, didn't do much against Michigan. I think he's a big-time playmaker tonight. I mean, Brock Bowers is an absolute stud, but I think Pickens is going to make some big plays for Georgia. So look, at the end of the day, I went back and looked at rematches, and yes, Utah got the best of Oregon twice this year, but normally when we get a rematch in college football between two teams that are on the same level, the team who lost the first time

gets their revenge more often than not. 2011. We had the game of the century, LSU and Alabama. 9-6, LSU, LSU wins. Alabama shuts them out in the national championship. 9-0-0. 9-6, Florida, Florida State, and the national championship, or sorry, Florida, Florida State,

24-21, Florida State. They played in January 2nd, and Spurrier and Company 152 to 20. And the one game that really jumped out of me, and I know you and I were on this side, 2017, Auburn thumped Georgia, 40 to 17 in November.

They played again in the SEC championship. Georgia was a slight favorite. We had Georgia, we had Georgia for the maximum in that one. And they won 28 to 7. And by the way, we had Auburn the first go round. That was, that was, that we hit both of those.

And that's why, and that's why, look, quarterback. I'm happy, if and when Alabama, tonight. I will take my lumps. I will raise my hand, say, I'm the idiot who bet against Nick David. No, you're not an idiot. It's the right bet. I just think, you know, you look at the splits too. I mean, you know, bet MGM just came out. I think they're 90, 90% on 90% money line bets on Alabama. You know, Caesars is 76% on Alabama, you know. You're seeing a very, the information.

Very basic handicap from a lot of people. Sorry to touch you up. You're seeing a very basic handicapped from a lot of people. I've gone on multiple shows this week, and it's, I'm getting Nick Sabin and points. I'm not passing it up. I'm like, I get it, but there's a reason why that number is what it is. Yeah, I, you know, the offshore stuff that I usually get on Fridays, Thursday nights and Fridays, it's not, you know, and some of, like the bet percentage is definitely weighted in Bama's favor. The money isn't, though.

There's some, I mean, I was told that there are enough sharp betters that like both sides. Look, the bottom line is Georgia, in terms of anti-public, is the right side. The neighbor analogy, you know, your buddy that says, are you kidding me? Didn't they just absolutely blow out Georgia just a month ago? Yeah, they did. 41 to 24. And yet, they're an underdog again, not as big an underdog, but they're an underdog again. end. Bryce Young is the best, I mean, he and Stroud probably, the best college quarterbacks,

and Young is spectacular, and he's so smooth. I love watching this dude play. Don't you think he is right now, like Trevor Lawrence, like the absolute lock to be the number one pick in the 2023 draft? Yeah, you would think so. Where will Stroud go? You know, people have questions about Stroud, and I'm curious how he'll do next year. I mean, Jackson Smith and Jigba is ridiculous, too. So, I mean, people, you know, Sean King, my co-host, and he loves Bryce Young. I mean, Caleb Williams is going to be in that draft class, too.

Yeah. No, wait. No, no, no, no. He's 20-24. He's a true sophomore. So he's got two more years of college left. So, yeah, that next year will be C.J. Stroud. Right, because he's a true freshman.

And then Caleb will be 2024. But, you know, people have their questions. I think next year's a big year for C.J. Stroud. Because people just think he was just swinging it around to, Garrett Wilson and Chris Olavé and Smith and Jigba and then you have you know Henderson in the backfield which is true but he's also pretty damn good too so I think Bryce Young when you look around you know Brian Robinson struggled at times this year he was a little bit banged up and then obviously he went nuts in the

in the playoff game against Cincinnati but I think you look at the Auburn game and that was his moment and even the Georgia game I mean he rose to the occasion so much in those spots that I think that's why he's ahead of DJ Stroud. Yeah, I hear you. You know, the rematch thing that you were sharing with me, it's like I just had a flashback to those teams, like the LSU and the Bama matchups. Those were the Kirby smart defenses, you know, for Bama.

And it was before, you know, Nick Sabin said, All right, Lane, Kiffin, can you come in and can we start running the spread and can we start to become quarterback university and wide receiver university too? And it's just different now. Stetson Bennett may prove me wrong and he did very much in the semi-final game. But I think I'm going to just stay off it and enjoy it. By the way, I'll be rooting for Georgia because I'm leaning Georgia. and, you know, if it stays at three up, probably just, you know, probably dip my toes a little bit. Why not?

I mean, it's hard to. I mean, after all the NFL, I'm excited for this game, but you're right. It is very sort of anticlimactic after the NFL weekend that we just went through. But, yeah, all right. That was awesome. Thanks for doing this. Just prediction on the score real quickly tonight. Georgia 27 Bama 21

A little bit of Georgia in the under right there Have you looked at the end? Have you looked at the end? Go ahead. I don't know, I just say I don't love the total. I would lean towards the under. But, you know, national championships, I think historically have kind of leaned towards the over.

So I'm just going to stay off and hope that Georgia doesn't make me look like an idiot. Did you look at the six NFL point spreads? I know we've mentioned a couple of them so far, but did any of them stick out as obvious to you one way or the other? I bet the 49ers. I'd just like the 49ers. You know, only a three-point dog at Dallas. I think I'm curious to see which way the public goes. And maybe it's a square dog situation. I don't know. But that's the one that jumps at me. I mean, New England's catching points against Buffalo over a fuel goal, so we'll see where that one goes. Pittsburgh has a big-ass number against Kansas City, 12 and a half, 13 and a half.

We'll see how these things go, where the market takes them, but my initial lean on all of this was San Francisco plus a three. Yeah, my initial, the game that I like initially is I like the Eagles plus nine at Tampa. I think the Eagles, I think people are going to play. Tampa, I still think that the Eagles people are sleeping on them. I know that they haven't beaten a bunch of great teams, but if you've watched them, they're the type of team that ends up being a little bit dangerous in a playoff game if they're able to run the football. And I think there are two teams that, look, I'm not going to be surprised if Tampa makes a run. It's Brady, of course. The Rams are off.

There's just something not right with them. There hasn't been for a few weeks. I think the Cardinals fit that description. I don't think the Cowboys are completely right. We're going through a lot of NFC teams here. But I think Philadelphia is a good football team. And I think they've been very much underrated all season long, especially over the last two and a half months. And I think Tampa, you know, hasn't played their best. Look, that game, I had Carolina yesterday. That was my one play yesterday. And that's a 2417 game. They were up early in the first half. They had the ball inside the three yard line on two occasions, didn't come away with points. They ended up getting blown out.

I mean, I don't know how that happened. It was like 2417 and then all of a sudden it's 4117 loss. But I like the Eagles early. Much more on that the rest of the week. All right. I will talk to you soon. Listen to Tim on his show, on Veezen, wherever you can find it. It's 10 to 1.

He does it with Sean King. Buccaneers quarterback. Follow him on Twitter at one Tim Murray. I know this was longer than you thought it would be, but I appreciate you sticking it out. Thanks. All right, Kevin, see you. Tim Murray, everybody.

One of my favorite people. Such a good dude. He's probably right about Georgia, and it certainly is a game that typically fits my smell test criteria. I think the two and a half has been bothering me. The fact that it's been sitting there at two and a half. Now he said it's gone to,

three pretty much everywhere this morning. I'm not going to give out Georgia as a smell test pick. I probably should. But the information I have is that a lot of the money is split, even though the public's one-sided in total bet count, and that there's sharp money on both sides. I'm just going to steer clear of this. Bryce Young is the much better quarterback in this game.

That's analysis. That's not supposed to factor in to the smell test. We're finishing up the show next segment with two things. One, a potential surprise higher in Carolina. And what happened 35 years ago today, one of the famous plays in Washington Redskins history. You'll hear it as it was called by Pat Somerall and the late John Madden, the late Pat Sumerall, too. That's right after these words from a few of our sponsors.

Just a reminder to subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already. It doesn't cost your thing really helps us. Rate us and review us, especially on Apple and Spotify as well. Five stars would be great. A quick one to two sentence review really would help as well. Two things to end the podcast with. Number one, Jay Gruden is a candidate to become the new offensive coordinator for the Carolina Panthers. That according to Adam Schepter.

Shepter mentioned Gruden's name, Kevin O'Connell's name. Kevin is the O.C. for Sean McVeigh in L.A. And also Bill O'Brien's name. Bill O'Brien currently the O.C. for Alabama. But Jay Gruden back into coaching, possibly with the Carolina Panthers working for Matt Ruhle, who will be retained. That's what Jay is good at. I mean, Jay is an O.C. People respect Jay as an O.C.

I'm actually in some ways kind of surprised because I think he did a deep. job at times last year. They had some injuries last year in Jacksonville. But Jay's are respected offensive mind in this league and very much a respected pass offense designer in particular. The last thing on the show today is this time of year, you know, January, typically I'll look for like anniversary dates. I know everybody doesn't do this, but this football team has played in some pretty big games in January. Lots of them. It's just been a long time. since they played in some of those games. But on this date, January 10th, 1987, 35 years ago, 35 years ago today, Soldier Field Divisional Round Playoff Game between the Chicago Bears and the Washington Redskins.

The Bears were the higher-seeded team. The Bears were a four-and-a-half-five-to-five-point favorite in this game. The temperature at kickoff was four degrees above zero with 20 below windchill temperatures at Soldier Field. Washington fell behind 14 to nothing in this game, came back and tied it up just before the end of the first half at 14.14. Doug Williams to Clint Didier on a touchdown pass made it 14 to 14. and then in the third quarter in a 14 to 14 game, one of the most famous plays in franchise history. This is up there. This is up there with Rigo's run.

Rigo's runs number one, okay? The Rigo touchdown run in Super Bowl 17 is the most famous of all plays in franchise history. But there have been a lot of them. By the way, famous and infamous. I mean, the Clint Longley bombed to Drew Pearson, the Tony Hill from Roger Staw back at the end of 79. But then there's some big ones for Washington. Obviously, Ken Houston's stop of Walt Garrison on a Monday night play. A lot of famous plays in franchise history.

This one, though, it's in the top five. I'll do that one day, the greatest plays in franchise history. But this one is top five, maybe top three. in terms of all-time famous plays in franchise history. 14-14, third quarter, Gibbs puts Daryl Green back to return a punt to return a punt in a playoff game against the Bears at Soldier Field. This is Pat Summerall and John Madden on the call. Darrell Green goes back deep for Washington.

Barnhart. hunting against the wind out of his own end zone came back to his own 48 yard line but he's got some room he might have pulled a hamstring on his way into the end zone they when he went across there he looked like he was hurt just be tired because he's had to chase willie golf all over the field now he's returning kicks you talked about an impact player he might have heard it when he had to jump over somebody

well he jumps right there That is a hurdle. And then when he starts there, now just before he goes in, he looks like he's holding his side. Look, he looked like he just got a cramp in his stomach. He's holding his side with his left hand. Allie Hodgiske's extra point is good in the Redskins for the first time today. Take the lead over the Bears as the medical staff is looking at Darrell Green over on the Redskins bench. The 52-yard punt return gave Washington a 21-14 lead, a lead they did not lose.

They went on to win the game, 21-17. The following week, they beat Minnesota in the NFC championship game, and then they went on to win the Super Bowl over Denver that year in resounding fashion, 42-10. Darrell Green tore rib cartilage on that return. He explained it this way when he was talking about this game many years ago. He said, I had my hands in the hand warmers. I pulled them out. I caught it.

I started to the right. I leapt over one guy. And when I leapt over the other guy, my feet touched the ground. I had to make an immediate left turn. And in doing that, I tore cartilage in my ribs because I wasn't stretched verdict. my body wasn't stretched from jumping around, and then at the same time, I had to step to my left, and I was just overstretching, I would imagine. But it didn't stop him. Daryl Green, with his left hand on his injured ribs and the ball on his right hand, essentially went untouched. He was one of the

great punt returners in NFL history, but he just didn't do it enough. He was too valuable as a corner to be back there too often as a punt returner. But man, coach Joe, when in need of a big punt return, would put number 28 back there. That was 35 years ago today, the famous Daryl Green punt return in a playoff game at Soldier Field against the Bears to give Washington a lead. They would not relinquish. I've heard many people over the years say, oh man, that punt returned by Daryl Green on the final play of the game or that punt returned by Daryl Green late in the fourth quarter. It was actually early

in the third quarter in a 14-14 game. But it was a significant play in one of the real all-time great plays in franchise history. Love that season, loved that team. Doug Williams that day, by the way, if you're wondering, Doug Williams was 14 of 29,

207 yards, had a touchdown, but kept them in that game when they were down 14-0. They had a couple of big drives to get back into it, and then that set the stage for Daryl's punt return in the second half. All right, that's it for the show today. Tommy will be with me tomorrow.