The Kevin Sheehan Show - WFT's Worst

Episode Date: October 18, 2021

Kevin solo today with his declaration on Taylor Heinicke, his recap of yesterday's 31-13 loss to the Chiefs, and plenty more on "Sean Taylor Jersey-Retirement Day". He talked about some of the other NFL games and a theory proposed by Peter King on the source of the leaked Gruden-Allen emails.  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. Take it. Mahomes. Touchdown, Kansas City.

That Patrick Mahomes, he's pretty good. Actually, yesterday in the second half, he was spectacular. He pretty much toyed with Washington in the first half, let him believe that they actually had a chance to win, making people like me believe that being on Washington plus seven was the right side. And then Patrick Mahomes got serious and put on a clinic in the second half, pulling away from Washington 31-13, outscoring Washington on Sean Taylor retirement Jersey Day in the second half, 21 to nothing. A good day after another loss and a two-and-four record.

Lots to get to on this show. I'm flying solo today. We will get to the game recap. I'll give you a quick state of the franchise through six games, which will include a declaration on Taylor Heineke. I'm ready to make a declaration on Taylor Heineke. We will definitely recap another embarrassing moment in the Sean Taylor retirement jersey situation.

God, yesterday was uncomfortable. I just hope that the Taylor's, were comfortable. I hope it was a positive experience for them. But man, the organization did everything possible to make it anything but. Peter King wrote a column that I want to talk about on the show today, suggesting a potential culprit for the leaks of the emails. I think you and certainly Tommy will be interested in his theory.

We'll go around the NFL a little bit as well. Seven and seven smell test weekend. Just sitting there at 500. over the last three weeks. I had the Patriots plus three. That was painful the way it ended. But, you know, we've got a long season to go. So before we get started with a quick state of the union on the Washington football team through six games,

my friend Dave emailed me three sound clips. He emailed them to me late last night and he said, why don't you use these on your radio show? They're kind of funny. Well, I didn't see them. after the show. So I will play them for you on this show. I'll play one now and I'll play the other two a little bit later on in the show. But they're really reflective of a national media that was really all bought in on Washington just a month ago, you know, right before the regular season

started. Let me just say, clearly, if you went back and listened to radio shows or podcasts that I've done over the years, you could find clips that would be totally humiliate. in terms of predictions that I made on teams or whatever. This was Mike Greenberg just before the season started. On his show, Get Up, ESPN's Get Up, listen to how absolutely bought in on Washington he is. Now, the NFL gets so much attention all year round that it is hard to imagine it could ever have a secret as well kept

as the Washington football team is headed into this year. Caesars has them at 25 to 1 to win the end. NFC. Even Vegas doesn't see this is coming, and it is. The formula is there and it's proven recently. They are the 49ers of two years ago. Start with the quarterback, who has been far more magic than tragic of late. These are the numbers. The last three seasons, Ryan Fitzpatrick has a higher completion percentage than Tom Brady. He has a higher touchdown percentage than Dak Prescott. He has a higher QBR than Deshawn Watson. He's been very good, and his new team is sneaky loaded. It won an admittedly bad division last year with the worst quarterback play in the

sport. They were 32nd out of 32 teams. The top receiver is a stud. You barely know him. His name is 25-year-old Terry McLaurin. He has more than 2,000 yards in two seasons playing with Dwayne Askins, Case Keenham, Alex Smith, Kyle Allen, and Colt McCoy. The running back is 23-year-old Antonio Gibson. He had over 1,000 yards from scrimmage and 11 touchdowns starting just 10 games as a rookie. And the defense? It may very well be the best in the entire sport. They had the best pass rush in the league, the second half of last season. They sacked Tom Brady three times in a playoff game. He was only sacked three more times total in the three playoff games that followed. And then finally, the coach, he's a winner. Ron Rivera won the division last year while

battling cancer and made the playoffs four times in five years in Carolina. So again, the formula, good enough quarterback play, dominant defensive line, coach who knows how to win, That was San Francisco two seasons ago, and that team wound up in the Super Bowl. So if this one does that at the end of this year, just remember, you absolutely should have seen it coming. You know what's so funny in listening to these three, and you'll hear the other two. One was from Lewis Riddick, and the other one was from Sam Macho. I think Sam works for ESPN as well, and I'll play them throughout the show today, is that I love when people like that say the odds makers have it all wrong, essentially.

No, they didn't. They had it all right. During the entire summer when people were really excited about Washington and a lot of national people, and you just heard what Greenberg said, I kept saying over and over again, you know who doesn't agree? The odds makers in Vegas and offshore don't agree. They have Washington's win total hovering around eight and a half. They have Washington's odds to win the NFC championship. as like the fourth or fifth worst among the 16 teams in the NFC. They were a sizable underdog to the Cowboys for a while, and then it closed as we got close to the regular season opener in the NFC East. They weren't buying it as much, and I played, I told all of you, I played Washington on the under eight and a half this year. My number, where is it? Hold on. I could look it up on my site real quickly, but I wrote it then.

I have Washington under 8.5 plus 105. I took Dallas over 9.5 minus 120. I took Philly over 7 plus 120 and the Giants over 7.5 minus 120. That one's going to lose. I think Philly's still possible. But Washington and Dallas are more likely than not going to be winners. And look, it was all based on the conversation we had all offseason about the defense. that the defense wasn't an elite defense, that it wasn't likely going to be an elite defense this year.

Certainly none of us expected it to be where it is now, you know, dead last. I mean, have we ever had a team predicted to have like the best unit in the league or one of the best units in the league and they end up being the worst? I'm sure we have. But Washington right now, dead last, or just a dead last in multiple categories defensively. It's a mess defensively, but we knew some of this. All of us did. You know, the quarterbacks they faced last year, what last year really was about.

It wasn't a good team. It was a sub-average team that just was in a terrible division. And we knew what they were going to be facing this year in terms of quarterbacks and other teams. So, look, no one saw this coming. I'm not about to claim victory for predicting that Washington was going to have a terrible defense this year. and a terrible team. No, I thought it would be an improved defense. I thought the additions they made would be, or hopefully would be helpful. I thought another year and a full off season, and the Rivera Jack Del Rio system would really help. But I also thought that the results in terms of wins and maybe

rankings might not be what they were last year. But anyway, the other two, just for grins, Louis Riddick and Sam Achos' preseason discussion. of Washington, we will drop in there during the rest of the show today. Okay, I want to start with a brief state of the union, if you will. State of the union on this team. The Washington football team right now through six weeks is a bad team. The seasons on the brink, teetering on the brink, of being over from a legitimate contention standpoint. That's the truth right now. If you go through their schedule right now, you can't find

more than one game definitively where they will be favored. And you'll find plenty where they will be big, sizable underdogs. Green Bay this week, there are 10.5.11 point underdog. The game in Denver in two weeks, they're going to be every bit of a 5-6-point underdog minimum at Denver. Tampa at home, and this all assumes that these teams are what we think of them now, and obviously that can change. Tampa at home, you know, 7, 8, 9 point underdog. Carolina on the road, even though Carolina is floundering a little bit now, every bit of a three-point underdog. Seattle at home on a Monday night, Russell Wilson scheduled to be back. They'll probably be at least a three, four-point underdog.

The Raiders on the road, that feels like a touchdown anywhere between 7 and 10 as an underdog by the time we get there. Both games against Dallas on the road, every bit of a double-digit underdog at home, I don't know, five, six, something like that, four, depending on where it is. The two Philadelphia games, they'll probably be an underdog on the road, a favorite at home, and the Giants at the end of the year in the season finale, who the hell knows. But this is a four or a five-win team. I mean, we're six games into the season. Lots can change. The teams that they face could change significantly between now and the time Washington gets there. But this is a four to five win team. It certainly feels that way. They are terrible on defense,

terrible on defense, and they're limited at quarterback. And that's where I want to go right now, because I have told you in the past that I'm not ready to declare on Taylor Heineke, that I'm not a believer, but I'm not a non-believer either, that I wanted to see more. Not an unreasonable take, I don't think. I've seen five and a half games now this year. I'm ready to declare. And it could certainly be premature, but I'm ready to declare. I now have a really strong feeling one way over the other. I didn't before. I had a lean. I had a slight lean that he was not going to be the guy. But I wasn't sure, because there was so much about him that I liked, and I wanted to see more. I'm ready to declare.

Taylor Heineke's not an NFL starting quarterback. He's not an NFL starting quarterback anywhere. He's an NFL backup quarterback. There it is. There's the declaration. I like him. There's so much about his game that I really like. I've seen five and a half games this year and whatever we saw last year.

We've seen him play a couple of good defensive teams, a couple of terrible defensive teams like yesterday. And I think I've seen enough to know definitively now he's not the answer. He's not the answer this year. He's not the answer next year. He's not the answer at all when it comes to a conversation about a legitimate starting quarterback for this franchise. If he's the backup moving forward, I am totally fine with that.

I think he deserves and will be on. a roster for the next few years as a backup, whether it's here or somebody else. He actually has a lot of qualities that are great in a backup. You know, he's totally fearless, doesn't get nervous, doesn't get rattled, can come in in mid-game or get himself prepared. As Ron Rivera said, you know, a couple of, maybe a week, week and a half ago, you know, confidence isn't his issue. He's able to make plays. You know, he's had some real. good games, you know, not against great defensive teams necessarily, although he did have a really good game against Tampa in the playoffs. But he's not the guy. You know, for all of you that were

convinced, and not everybody was convinced, we did this poll, if you recall, I did this poll on my radio show, but I shared it with you on the podcast. It was, I don't know, three weeks ago, and it was essentially trying to prove that Taylor Heineke was not like this polarizing conversation. Many more people than not thought it was at the very least worth it to give him a shot and to have him play the rest of the year to see if there's anything there. It was like 86% either were all bought in or no, we got to give him time. Like there's something there and we got to give it time to see if he's, you know, it might be a long shot, but we're willing to give him the rest of the year. You know, so it was never a polarizing conversation about him. And I think, you know,

most of you that had the position, yeah, there are things I like about them, but I want to see more. That was a reasonable take, not because it was my take, but because he did enough to be intriguing and we hadn't seen enough. By the way, you know, the biggest concern about Taylor Heineke coming into the season was his durability. He took some shots yesterday, and he has not been hurt. He's held up for five and a half games anyway, which is the longest stretch of his very, very brief career. But he's a backup in the NFL. You know, despite liking a lot about him, he's a backup. He's got back-to-back games now of his worst passer rating in QBR games. And why is that? Well, you know, teams are starting to be able to figure him out a little bit, you know.

They're starting to understand what they need to do to make him even more limited than just the physical portions of his game. You know, he played. a good defense last week. He played a terrible defense yesterday. Yesterday he had a 28.2 QBR. Last weeks was 25.1. The Chiefs had been allowing opposing quarterbacks, and I admit they had faced some good ones along the way this year. But opposing quarterbacks had averaged a 63.7 QBR against them. All right. Taylor had a 28.2 QBR. Opposing passers against the Chiefs prior to yesterday, yesterday averaged a 102 passer rating. Taylor's was a 70.7. And by the way, trust me on this, I am not putting yesterday's loss solely at the feet of Taylor Heineke. I think the offense overall

was the bigger problem than even the defense was this week. I'll get to that in a moment. But, you know, he wasn't helped by anybody yesterday. His pass catchers dropped balls. There were a couple that were catchable, one for a touchdown by Diami Brown that he couldn't pull in. And I didn't think really that Scott Turner helped out all that much. I thought it was a game plan that should have been more balanced and protective of Taylor because the Chief's game plan was to come after him yesterday. But there it is. State of the Union on Washington right now is they are a bad team.

They're not going to contend for anything. I think this is probably a four or five win season, which should put them in the top five of next year's NFL draft and give them a chance if there's a quarterback they love to pick a young quarterback in the draft next year. Part of my state of the current six-game thing does not include anything about the coaches. Ron Rivera is not in trouble.

Jack Del Rio is not in trouble. I would be floored if anybody gets fired on that staff this season. I do think, however, that it's just a gut feeling, that a quarterback change could be coming, that Kyle Allen might get an opportunity, and that if Ryan Fitzpatrick does come back, that Ryan Fitzpatrick will be inserted back into the starting lineup. Anyway, that is that. Let's get to the game take when we come back right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Pay attention.

Here's Kevin's Game Day. All right, let's get to the list of things I like, things I didn't like, and a few other observations from yesterday's game. Let me just start by saying overall, I thought it was one of the worst combined efforts of the season. We haven't seen one good defensive game all year, but we've seen some pretty good offensive performances, you know, against the Giants on that Thursday night game. The Falcons game was pretty good. You know, this was probably more comparable to the Buffalo game, but Buffalo's, you know, really, really nasty on defense,

and that game was on the road. This one, I think overall, context, everything, was probably the worst of their six games and the most disheartening, especially considering that they were actually legitimately in it, even though it's just sort of felt this way with me in recent years, that I never really think they're going to close it out. I did think, though, that because of the point spread

and that I think Vegas really needed Washington plus the seven yesterday and that they had a 13 to 10 lead, and Mahomes, you know, was playing sloppy football like he had been. Tarreek Hill was injured and was out, then he came back. I thought that, you know, certainly when they had a, chance to go up 16 to 10 on a field goal, you know, early in the third quarter. I thought that they could hang in there. I don't know if I ever felt they'd win the game, but it really got away from them quickly and it was, I think, overall the worst effort of the year. And let me also

just say, before I get to this list, in the discussion of pie blame chart, you know, in the discussion of pie blame chart, you know, my blame chart sliced up as if it's a pie. This would be the first game of the year, first loss of the year, that I'd put more on the offense than the defense. And I'll explain in a little bit. Let me give you a couple of things that I liked. You know, the three takeaways were nice. You know, they had some takeaways last week, three in the first half in this game, but they were really not forced except for one of them. The first one came on Tarik Hill's dropped pass, and I told you on Friday. They're going to put a couple of balls up in the air, either off deflections or Mahomes just throwing them up for grabs and they got to catch them. That was one of my keys to the game on

Friday. And they did. They put the ball up into the air twice in the first half off of the drop by Hill that turned into the fuller interception. And then you had the crazy play by Mahomes at the end of the first half where he just threw it willy-nilly up into the air. And Bobby McCain picked it up after he had fumbled the snap. And then the third turnover was the McCole Hardman fumble on the reverse. Man, is he fast and a playmaker? And I thought that was the one that was a really good play by Cole Holcomb in particular. Holcomb made a really nice play going from sideline to sideline,

getting there for the tackle and forcing the fumble. Three takeaways, no matter how they come, that'll always end up as a positive on a day. I actually thought that this is going to sound weird because the defense was not good yesterday. But again, I think the offense was more to blame for the loss. And I actually thought at times watching them defensively that at least up front in terms of pass rush pressure that they had had one of their better days. And they had three sacks and ten quarterback hits. And Mahomes was definitely knocked around in the first half.

I thought John Allen in particular, he got doubled a bunch too, but had some really good pressures, even some while being doubled. I thought Chase Young was okay for the game, but he had a couple of moments, obviously, had a big sack early in the third quarter. And I thought he was getting chipped and doubled a little bit. By the way, one thing on Chase Young, he almost had one of those dumb penalties that he's had several of since he got into the league with Washington. and he pushed Mahomes down to the ground well after a pass. Mahomes was looking for the flag. Now, it wasn't a big-time unnecessary roughness hit, but I've seen less get flagged in the NFL.

The point here is, dude, you've got to be more disciplined. You've got to just, you know, knocking Mahomes to the ground a full second and a half after he's thrown the ball. Nobody's going to be impressed with that if they flag it. But on the list of things that I liked, I thought they had some decent pass rush pressure, especially in the first half. J.D. McKissick's on the list of things that I liked. Sixteen touches, 110 yards in the game. Eight rushes, eight rushes, excuse me, for 45, and eight catches for 65 yards. That's a really good game by J.D. McKissick. I thought he was really good in this game.

I think he's been really good at times this year. This screen on third and 16, turned into a first down was the biggest offensive play, maybe the biggest play for Washington in the first half if the Mahomes' interception at the end of the half wasn't, because they would have had to punt. And it was third and 16. And man, watch that play and watch West Schweitzer get out on that screen. He had multiple big-time blocks to clear the way for McKissick. But I really liked McKissick in this game. I've liked McKissick ever since he got here. I thought he was really good yesterday. And then lastly, on the list of things that I liked, Jaman Davis stood out yesterday, led the team in tackles with 11, his best game by far.

Look, I don't know what the film will judge and what his responsibilities were and how much he didn't do well, but he flashed. He had 11 tackles. He had a, there's a play, it's the first play of the fourth quarter. If you want to see what they like in Jamie Davis, watch the first play of the fourth quarter. Mahomes is flushed a little bit. I don't know if Davis is a spy on that player or if he's a late blitzer. They didn't blitz a lot. They played a lot of four down linemen and a lot of cover, you know, soft coverage, cover two, deep coverage, nothing behind them coverage in the game. But watch Jamon Davis sprint at Mahomes. It's a blur. He has legit speed. And, you know, athleticism. And that one play told me a lot of.

little bit about why they really liked him. Look, it's going to take some time for a young player like this. I know they need him. He played a lot more yesterday. Jamon Davis's snap counts, snap count in the game. I think the highest for him. Remember last week, he had like 12 snaps and it made up like 18 percent or whatever of the overall snap count. Yesterday, 46 defensive snaps, 56 percent of the snaps on defense yesterday. now, they didn't play as much five down linemen. In fact, I don't think they played it at all. I haven't gone back and watched it for a second time. I didn't see much five defensive linemen in the game. I saw a lot of four-man fronts, primarily four-man fronts. So they had, you know,

at least Holcomb and Davis in the game a lot together as true linebackers, with typically the third backer being one of the safeties, whether it was, whether it was Colin. Collins or it wasn't McCain necessarily. It was Collins and Curl primarily that would sort of act as that third linebacker in the box. Anyway, I thought Jamie and Davis stood out yesterday. Let's get to the list of things I did not like. So I'm going to start with the offense. Again, for the first time in a loss this year, the offense takes the biggest slice of the pie blame chart. I'd give them like 60% of it. You can't score 13 points against a team that was a lot. allowing 32.6 points most in the league coming in. You can't generate 276 total yards against a team that was allowing 437 per game second worst in the league. The chiefs were the 32nd ranked

defense out of 32 teams in the DVOA metric per football outsiders coming in. They had some good offensive teams that they faced this year. You know, they faced the Chargers. They faced the Chargers. They faced the Ravens. They faced the Browns. They also faced Philadelphia. The Eagles put up 30 points in 461 yards on the chiefs just a few weeks ago. Also keep in mind that the chiefs were missing two key defensive starters in the game. They were missing defensive end Chris Jones and starting corner Charverius Ward.

And yet Washington could not take advantage of it. I said that they had to score 28 plus in this game coming in. they never threatened much more than what they got, which was 13. I guess if Hopkins makes the field goal, 16. That was about right. That's about what they looked like on offense. I know the defense is bad and was bad, but the expectations against Mahomes and company were pretty low coming in defensively.

The defense had a bad day, and I'll get to that in a moment. But the offense, the offense didn't do their part yesterday. They made Kansas City's defense look like. like a juggernaut compared to what it was coming in. You know, this was a defense that was reeling that got healthy on Washington's offense. We've seen offenses sputtering coming into games against Washington and getting healthy against Washington's defense. Yesterday it was the other way around.

Also, on the things I did not like list, I didn't think Scott Turner had a very good game calling the game. And I'm not a big criticizing play-calling guy historically, because I think it's a real dangerous thing to do because when you criticize just say a run, like, why did they run it there? Well, sometimes it's not the play caller. You know, many times it's the quarterback in a check with me or a can-can situation. Let's can the first play, which is a run and we're going to throw it here. So a lot of times those are quarterback changes at the line of scrimmage. But I just think overall against that team yesterday, they should have run the football more. And I know that sounds totally old school, and I'm not just for running the football for the sake of running the football.

I want a team, my teams that I root for, to move it in any way it makes sense to move the football. But they had in the first half, their two running backs go 14 carries for 68 yards, nearly five yards, per carry. In the second half, they had the ball roughly on three possessions with the game still in doubt score-wise. You know, they were up 13-10. They were down 17-13 and then 24-13, so I'll call that still in the game. Fourteen of their first 18 offensive snaps in the second half were throws. I didn't love that at all. I thought that they could have run the ball, and I know Gibson was banged up, but McKissick could have had a big day, a much bigger day. Patterson, could have been the guy if Gibson was banged up.

Again, I'm sure that Turner might say we had a lot of runs called, and when the box was loaded, we went with the check with Mies. We went with the other play called. You know, that was Taylor's prerogative at the line of scrimmage. But I just thought that yesterday's game had to be one of complementary football. You know, you had to score more than anything else, regardless of how you did it. But you also, you know, wanted to keep the ball away from Mahomes, the Kansas City offense as much as possible.

You know, again, I would have been in favor of throwing it all day long if that was the way you were scoring and moving the football, you know, even if it only took two minutes because you needed to score. But I just thought that they could run it. They did run it when they tried to run it and that, you know, they should have stuck with the run a little bit more during that game. That's all. I also felt like the quarterback should have run.

He didn't have one rushing attempt in the game. I mentioned on Friday I thought one of the keys was Taylor Heineke making this defense pay with his legs. Other quarterbacks had done it. Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts all killed Kansas City's defense with their legs. And Heineke didn't even try. And that's what he does best. A couple of more things on the offense. I thought the first drive, or on Scott Turner, I'm sorry.

I thought the first drive of the second half when he tried to get Heineke out on the move a little bit, really worked. Some quick screens, some quick game and some screens. And I thought that was all working. But then they go bubble on third and two. Like just run the damn ball. Like you've got Antonio Gibson, get your boy in shotgun. You like that. And let's run some inside zone. Kansas City's not going to stop that. Run it two plays. You got to move the sticks. You've got to get touchdowns in this game. A third and two bubble, by the way, you know, pretty much impacted by the outside blitzer, which really impacted the throw and made the throw low and outside. That play lost four yards. And then they missed the field goal on the next play. So anyway, there was another

play that bothered me too. Scott Turner called some, a bunch of short routes on a third and eight when they were down 10, three in the first half. And on a third Nate, McClearn caught a three-yard slant or in. What was that? Like three of the four receivers were running routes well short of the sticks. I didn't like that at all. Next on the things I didn't like list, the defense. Again, I wouldn't give them the majority of the blame pie chart for this one, but they're certainly responsible for 30% of it. Here's the thing about a game like yesterday, is that you are expecting Patrick Mahomes and the Chief's offense to have a big day against a good defense, let alone a bad one.

So the expectations were low going in. Not many defenses have been able to slow down the chiefs during the Mahomes era. With that understood, though, 31 points, 499 yards, 11 for 16 on third down. That's terrible. You know, again, I said this a little bit earlier. The funny thing about this game is I was actually thinking as I was watching it, you know what? They're not doing a lot right, and there's a lot that's wrong about this defensive performance,

But there's some of this defensive performance that is better than anything I've seen all year, especially the pressure they got on Mahomes in the first half. They rushed four mostly. They played mostly a four-man front, as I mentioned, and I thought the front four got effective pressure, John Allen in particular. I have no idea what PFF is going to show. I mean, these PFF hurries or pressures, I just, I mean, sometimes I wonder what actually constitutes a pressure, because I think a lot of you read these PFF numbers and go nuts.

Oh, man, he actually did have a great game. My eyes told me he didn't have a good game, but look what PFF says. He had a great game. I don't watch the game. Watch the game and watch it again if you need to watch it again, if you really want to have an opinion. Like, I mean, there were people talking about Chase Young being chipped and doubled in some of these games earlier this year when he wasn't getting chipped and doubled at all.

Now, he was yesterday. but I thought the front four actually had a decent game rushing the passer. John Allen in particular looked like he was doubled more than anybody. I mean, Mahomes, Mahomes did throw it for 222 yards in the first half, under duress at times. But in the second half, he was, listen to what Patrick Mahomes did in the second half. They're down 13, 10 and half time, so they need to win this game. They're two and three. They can't fall to two and four.

So in the second half, Patrick Mahomes, who was 13 of 23 for 222, no touchdowns, two picks in the first half. And one of those picks, obviously, not his fault. In the second half, he was 19 of 24 for 175 yards, and he converted on eight of nine third downs, whether it was him throwing for a conversion or him running the ball for a conversion. They missed their first third down conversion after a penalty and the sack that Chase Young had, and they had a third and super long and they didn't pick that up. And then they converted their next eight third downs. So from early in the third quarter until the end of the game when they were running out the clock,

they had gone a stretch of eight for eight on third down. He was spectacular. He created one play, extended. another, played off schedule, you know, another, sort of all the same thing, but he was just sensational. The third and six flick to Kelsey where he just, you know, pushes it, you know, with the back of his hand and flicks it towards Kelsey that created the first and goal was just so, so good. You know, I think part of the problem, really, for the Chiefs in the first half, I think, look, they've been sloppy in a lot of their games, and as I mentioned to Tommy,

they've almost looked bored at times, but they didn't have to re-kill on the field for much to the first half. And that really hurt. And when he came back in the second half, they couldn't be stopped. The defense was pretty bad yesterday. What specifically was bad? Well, they didn't cover well, and then they really tackled poorly. How about the third and four on the chief second drive where Jared McKinnon catches it in the flat? And Fuller's got a chance to nail him, doesn't wrap them up. And then St. Juice, the rookie, grabs him and throws them forward for the first down. That should have been three yards short of the first down on a third down. There was a catch and run by Williams, the running back after the missed field goal in the third quarter.

Should have been like a five-yard gain, went for 13 yards after one whiff of a tackle attempt after another. Jackson, who has just been horrendous for the money this year, couldn't bring downhill on a first and 10 play that should have gone for like three yards and instead went for like nine. You know, you had the situation. So the tackling was terrible. The situation, the third and 10, when they were up 1310, after the miss field goal, the chiefs are on the move. They've got a third and 10, Montez Sweat jumps off sides. Then they've got a third and five, Chase Young jumps off sides.

Just ridiculous to have your two players that you thought were going to be stars this year. They just haven't shown enough discipline. Now, in the third and five, they completed a pass to Hill anyway. By the way, just one thing on the Young off-sides, which came on 3rd and 5, if you watch that play, because they didn't whistle the play dead and call it unabated to the quarterback, it was an actual play. It was a play in which Mahomes ended up completing a big ball to Hill for a first down, so they declined the penalty. But Young, after he clearly jumped off-sides, actually got held by the right tackle on his way to the quarterback.

So it could have been called off sides and holding on KC, which would have been offsetting penalties, and they would have had to play the third and five again. The Chiefs, 31 points, basically 500 yards, 11 for 16 on third down. I mean, my God, that drops Washington back to dead last in the league on third down. They're 32nd among 32nd, among 32nd, 7.8% on third down. That's dead last. and buy a lot. In this game, too, when you really think about it,

the Chiefs had those 31 points and 500 yards. A, without to re-kill for basically a quarter and a half. B, they had three turnovers in the first half. Two of them completely unforced in the first half as they were going in for scores. You know, they were going in for a score when Hill didn't catch the ball and Fuller intercepted it. They were going in for a score when McColle Hardman

fumbled on the reverse, and they were going in for a score at the end of the first half when Mahomes inexplicably didn't take the sack and threw the ball straight up into the air for Bobby McCain to pick off. Like this could have been a lot worse. A lot worse. The Chiefs had drives of 96 yards and 95 yards for touchdowns, and then at the end of the first half before that Mahomes' interception, they were in the midst of what more likely than not would have turned out to be a 93-yard drive. That's crazy. 96, 95, and they were on their way in that drive. I think they had a 75-yard drive before the turnover.

Yeah. The other thing, too, another opening drive producing points. In six games, Washington has now had its opponent score on the opening drive five of the six times this year. Four touchdowns. The Chargers scored a touchdown. The Giants scored a field goal. scored a touchdown. I'm sorry, let me back up.

The Charger scored a touchdown. The Giants scored a touchdown. Buffalo scored a touchdown. The Falcons kicked a field goal. The Saints were the only team that didn't score. Remember, Winston threw an interception, and then Kansas City scored a touchdown. You got to be better at the start of a game.

You know, you can't let teams drive it down your throat to start a game and score. Patrick Mahomes yesterday, Aaron Rogers next week. Not going to be pretty. Dustin Hopkins is on my list of things that I didn't like. I missed the field goal, and it was a short one, a 42-yarder

that would have given them a 16-10 lead. I would not have gone for the fourth and six in that spot. I just wouldn't have. I would have gone for the fourth and two had it been incomplete to Humphreys on the bubble screen. I hated that call, but a four-yard loss, fourth-and-six, no. I'm kicking the field goal.

It's a short chip shot field goal in the NFL, and it's going to give you a 16 to 10 lead. And by the way, you actually got a stop on Kansas City's first drive of the third quarter. Now, part of that is because of a holding penalty, and then Chase Young had a sack. But no, fourth and sixth, if they had gone for it and missed in that spot, a lot of you would have been angry. That's a chip shot field goal. You just had a negative play on third down, kick the field goal. Just make it. I hated the third and two call before that missed field goal.

I just wanted them to run the football. I mentioned that earlier, but I just wanted them to run the football. Shotgun, inside zone, Gibson with his power, gets two yards, sticks move, clock rolls, still have a chance to get a touchdown. In this game, I didn't think the punt coverage was very good. McColl Hardman averaged 28 yards on two punt returns. So that was on the list of things that I didn't like. A couple of other quick observations.

Antonio Gibson fumbled, his second loss fumble of the year, his fourth of his career. He also had a drop pass in the game. Kendall Fuller had a terrible game again. He did catch the interception off the hill drop, and he almost had one when Hill slipped. He probably should have had that one early in the game. If you want to look at what Ron Rivera is talking about in terms of discipline, do your job, here's a play. Fourth and one on the opening drive of the game for the Chiefs.

And Washington's in their short yardage D, and there's a gap that opens up for Williams that's cleared out. Ionitis looks like he's clearing out for a gap to be filled, and it looked like Cole Holcomb, the linebacker, did not fill the gap. Williams got the first down easily. You know, Washington almost blocked a punt in this game really close with about six minutes left in the first half. Terry McClure on the other observational list that I put together. He didn't have a good game. You know, he wasn't healthy coming in. He had a drop.

He had an offensive pass interference in the game. It was probably the worst game of the season for Terry McLaren. Also, I wanted to address the end of the first half. 23 seconds to go after the interception by Mahomes. They're at their own 21-yard line. They came out throwing. You know, they weren't going to sit on a 1310 lead. They were going to try to do something with 23 seconds left and plenty of timeouts,

all three of them, in fact, at their own 21. They had a throw-on-first down to Seals Jones that really was underthrown. Could have been caught, but it was not a well-thrown ball by Heineke. McKissick runs it for eight on second down, and Kansas City calls a timeout. So with 11 seconds to go, Washington's facing a third and two from their own 33-yard line. not their own 33-yard line, their own 28 or 29-yard line, I guess that was.

And so they ran McKissick on 3rd and 2. He picks up 6 yards to the 35-yard line, and they could have called time-out with 7 to 8 seconds left and maybe taking a deep shot down the middle and then maybe gotten another time-out and then had a chance for a Hail Mary. That's what they could have done.

But they ran McKissick instead, or they just let them. the clock run out after McKissick's third and two run. I don't know against Kansas City. I know that Taylor Heineke may not have the arm strength to throw a Hail Mary, but you could put Kyle Allen into the game if he can throw it. I just think that those are the things you've got to do in a game like that. Anyway, that was it. Tressway was called for a block below the waist in the game. That was crazy. That's my game take. Much more when we come back, including how the team handled the Sean Taylor Jersey retirement ceremony at the stadium yesterday.

We'll get to that next right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Washington is a problem because they are built to win early, middle, late season, and be able to win in the postseason because of how they're strong up front, they're strong down the middle. they've added weaponry on the outside that now can beat you with big plays and or a ball control type of offense. And you know their front floor up on defense will come and hunt your quarterback down if they have a lead. And they're building up the secondary to where it looks much better as well now, especially with the addition of William Jackson and three agencies.

That was Lewis Riddick before the season on a Rich Eisen podcast talking about how he thought Washington. They're going to be a problem with that defense. He was talking also prior to the sound that you heard. He was assuming that Ryan Fitzpatrick would be the quarterback, but still, funny to listen to now, considering how bad this defense is. And again, I say to you, we could all have those sound clips pulled from various predictions from over the years and sound just as silly. Okay.

A reminder to subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already. It doesn't cost you a thing. Also, rate us and review us on Apple, Spotify, and Google. That helps a lot as well. The Monday night game tonight, if you go to mybooky.orgie.ag, you'll see that the Tennessee Titans are a six-point underdog at home against the surging Buffalo Bills. The bills, remember, lost the opener at home against the Steelers. 23 to 16, and they have been on a roll ever since then. They beat the Dolphins, 35-0-0,

beat Washington, 43-21, beat the Texans, 40-0, and really impressively blew out the Chiefs last Sunday night at Arrowhead, 38 to 20. Go to MyBooky at MyBooky.orgie. Use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and they will double your first deposit. MyBooky's a place where you can use for comparison shopping standpoint. If you've already got a site, you can use MyBooky's, Booky to get a better line, a better money line, a better total, a better price. And by the way, you will get, you know, your money doubled, your deposit doubled. So they'll give you,

you know, a bunch of money to play with for nothing just for signing up. Go to MyBooky at mybooky.orgie. And please use my promo code, Kevin D.C. If there's something already written in the promo code, just erase it and put in Kevin D.C. So, on Sean Taylor, Jersey retirement day. I just, first and foremost, and I trust me, this isn't, you know, some sort of, you know, trying to be do the right thing or be righteous when it comes to the tailors.

But I really did. It's funny. I was playing golf on Friday, and I, somebody just mentioned to me, God, I hope that the Taylor family, who lost a son, a brother, you know, a father, I hope they're not coming into this incredible controversy and ugliness of the Washington football team, and they're made to feel uncomfortable. And I didn't want that either. So I hope that

it worked out well for them yesterday. But there was a lot that was embarrassing about yesterday. Look, my opinion hasn't changed since Friday. And there's nothing that would change my opinion. no matter who calls me and tells me otherwise, there's no proof and there's a lot of circumstantial on Washington having come up with this idea roughly a week ago and said, this is a way for Dan Snyder, or this is a way for me as Dan Snyder, to create some cover. Now, they didn't think it through clearly enough per usual, but I do not think that this is something that was planned well in advance. I said on Friday. It's one of two things, right?

You either planned it well in it. You either planned it in advance and plan for it to be a secret, which is moronic, or you didn't plan it in advance. You plan something in advance, the Sean Taylor rededication of that road and a Sean Taylor tribute as part of alumni weekend. But the Sean Taylor retirement part was not part of that. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. at this point. It is what it is. It was a disaster last week. And it became even worse yesterday. I'll start with this. Did you guys see the various photos of Sean Taylor Retirement Jersey weekend? First of all, God bless this family for what they went through. There is a picture of the

Taylor sitting in front of a sign that says Sean Taylor Road, which was the rededication of the road out of FedEx. The picture is taken in front of a series of porta-potties. Yeah, port-a-potties is the backdrop for this picture of the Taylor family. Whose idea was that? Secondly, there was a place on the field that was a tribute area for Sean Taylor. It was a roped off area with 21, you know, painted into the grass, spray painted into the grass. That 21 was roped off, and it was apparently also a VIP area.

It was on the chief's sideline. And so the pictures that you have seen probably are people standing in this area on the 21. One dude in a Mahomes jersey standing on the two in the two. 21. You can't make this up. They've got it roped off, but it's roped off for VIPs to stand on the 21 that they had carved out, that they had spray painted out. And then, of course, there was nothing. There were no speeches. There was no organization of a halftime ceremony. There were no signs. They really didn't have enough jerseys to sell. They didn't have enough towels to hand out. and the owner and the co-owner, the CEO and the co-CEO,

Mr. and Mrs. Snyder. Jesus, God. They took a picture with the Taylor family. Taylor family, you guys are terrific. Pedro Pete, unbelievable. I'll never forget my conversation with you on the air, like on the year anniversary of Sean's death. I'll never forget being on the air for hours upon hours in that tragic few days in November of 2007.

There's a picture of the tailors, and there's Mr. and Mrs. Snyder with Sean's daughter, who's all grown. There's a picture on a stand of Sean Taylor's jersey. This is what they were giving the tailors, I guess. and the owner is so, you know, so into this event that he wore a hoodie. The man is standing there, the owner, in a hoodie, taking this picture. So you had all of that. You had no speeches or really any sort of organization in a halftime ceremony. but then there was this.

I got sent a picture. I did not go to the game. I got sent a picture before the game that was of an area outside of the ticket office. It was a patch of grass with, again, 21 spray painted into the grass. And the message from somebody in their customer service or guest service department for the Washington, football team.

Tweet it out. This is a tribute area. This tweet went out yesterday morning. This is a tribute area for fans. It's been set aside to leave flowers and notes for 21. Look, the dude that did it that works for the Washington football team, I don't blame him. Okay. I'm sure he's another example of a guy that just arrived here and doesn't know anything about

the team. You know, this is these kinds of. kinds of people have to be managed in things like this. You're putting together essentially a makeshift memorial for a man who died 14 years ago. What are you doing? This is a joyous weekend to remember and celebrate his jersey being retired apparently. And we're going to create a makeshift memorial out in front of the stadium. There's the shot, it's clearly a photo op opportunity. And the shot is of a patch of grass, which with Sean's number, you know, probably, it certainly isn't the best looking of presentations, 21 spray painted into the grass. And there's one bouquet of flowers. One. That picture that they sent out was at like 10 a.m. At 5 p.m., people sent out the picture, and there was still only one bouquet of flowers.

Hell, if you were going to create a makeshift memorial 14 years after the man was tragically gunned down in his own home, maybe you should have thought about buying like a thousand dollars worth of flowers and putting them out there to make the makeshift memorial look even better. If you're asking for flowers and notes for 21, make it look better. I mean, I think the real issue here all along is obviously the incompetent ownership. we start there, you know, top down. And over the years, in competent ownership and insecure ownership and bullying and intimidating ownership,

they don't want to hire super high quality people most of the time because you get super high quality people into the organization and those that have been in the organization haven't lasted because they're not going to work for somebody like this for too long. And the person that they're working for isn't going to put up with somebody who may actually have better ideas than he does. or even pushes back a little bit. But really, you know, beyond having incompetent, insecure, and arrogant ownership and leadership,

the people that have been hired over the years, the majority of them don't know anything about this organization. They don't know anything. I mean, look, Jason Wright is a smart guy, high-quality person. I believe all of those things. I think that, you know, I would question him taking this job, but not really him, because it was an unbelievable opportunity as he became the first, first in the history of the league to be a team president, first African American to become a team NFL president. That on your resume, it's probably worth taking, even if you didn't vet the job out well, even if you're only going to stay for a year or two. But they've continually added people, with the exception of Bruce Allen, actually, who just don't know anything about the organization. You know, I, over the years, I remember saying to a couple of people in the organization when they really fucked things up in the past, and I wasn't the only one from the radio station that would say it.

We would say to them, look, use us. Pull us into some of these meetings when you're thinking about some of these things. At the radio station, you've got born and raised lifelong fans who are Washingtonians, and you've got a bunch of former players. You know, pull some of you guys in. They keep hiring people that don't know anything about the team. You can't be a significant figure in their executive department and be on a radio show and not know that two other jerseys have been retired. You have to know if you work in that organization that this is the 30-year anniversary

of the last Super Bowl team. I've told people there that the last couple of weeks, just so you know, if they're they end up doing something on the 30-year anniversary of the 91 team. It's because people like me told them about it because they didn't know anything about it. The whole thing is disgraceful. Last week was totally and utterly embarrassing and either incompetent, best case for them, or truly dishonest and devious, worst case. Using Sean Taylor as a shield is gross.

If it didn't happen that way, which I think it did, it's another level of incompetence that I don't think we've seen. And then they almost doubled down on it with a shot in front of the porta-potties, the owner in a hoodie taking a picture with the family, not one speech, not one mention of anything. And then this makeshift memorial, as if he died last week for crying out loud. Lastly on this. And I know we talked about this on Friday. And trust me, I don't want the tailors to ever think that Sean doesn't and does, did not deserve to have his jersey retired. Because I think he did. I think it's a special, you know, case.

And I've said all along, this is an owner or franchise decision because of the special unique case that Sean was. But I did tell somebody over there in a conversation that the. incompetence of last week was in a bucket all by itself. The other bucket that's filled to the brim that you haven't even gotten to, they haven't gotten to, is the fact that Sean should have never been the third jersey retired by this organization. It was not his turn. Bobby Mitchell, absolutely, if they were going to start retiring jerseys,

should have been the next one in after Sammy Ball. I do not have a problem with this. Sean's jersey retirement should have come well after 7, 8, 9, 10 guys. That's just, that is 100% true. You can be a special case to get your jersey retired. But to me, that's a separate conversation about when you get that jersey retired. It should not have come before many others. I've given you the list before.

We've talked about the list before. The list is 9, 28, 42, 44, and 81 to go with 49 and 33. Those, and you could argue more, go in before 21. I'm not saying 21 shouldn't go in, but it should not have been the third jersey retired. And I don't think the intention was for it to have ever been that until email. emails and investigations and other things. But there's always the possibility, I guess, long shot. I'm skeptical that it was just complete and utter incompetence in the rollout of this. But he should not have been the third jersey in. No disrespect to him at all. I am totally in

favor and on board with his jersey being retired. And by the way, it has been retired now. but there are plenty of former players, as Tommy pointed out on this show. And I know those former players have reached out to the organization and they're not happy. Not because they're criticizing Sean's jersey being retired, but because there were deserving, many more deserving legends. Sean Taylor's jersey is going to go in before art monks? What are you kidding me? In before Daryl Greens?

Are you out of your mind? Before Rigo? come on put it in retire it ring of fame retire jersey not the third one the order should have gone

Sammy's already Bobby Mitchell next and then from that list somebody's third fourth fifth sixth seventh eighth and then five years from now we could talk about on the maybe around the 20 year anniversary of his death about retiring Sean's jersey

and I know that many of the younger fans out there, that these are harsh words to you. And I just want you to understand that I don't think anybody of my generation that remembers the glory years and the winning and the Super Bowls has, some do. I don't have an issue with Sean's jersey being retired. I don't. And I really wanted yesterday to be a much more special day than the way they put it together. but his jersey did not deserve to go in before several other jerseys in the history of this

organization. Daryl Green's a Hall of Famer and played in three Super Bowls in one two. Art Monk is a hall of famer and is a three-time Super Bowl winner. John Riggins is probably the most iconic player in the history of this team, a Hall of Famer, and responsible for the single most memorable play in franchise history in a Super Bowl. Charlie Taylor, when he left the game, was the all-time leading pass catcher. Sonny Jurgensen is considered one of the greatest pure passers in the history of the game and is one of the great all-time quarterbacks, even though he did not play on many winning teams.

All right, I'm done with that. Let's go around the league. And the clutch moment, it's time to go around the NFL. Those it down the field. It's caught at the 10, and this game is over. The Cowboys win it. C.D. Lamb! That was a touchdown pass in overtime, and the Cowboys defeated the Patriots 35 to 29.

Painful if you were on the Patriots plus three or plus three and a half, obviously. That was a smell test pick. They seemed right the entire day yesterday. How about Trayvon Diggs, the pick six late in the fourth quarter? He's got seven interceptions on the season through six games. He's got two pick sixes. You know, they came back and through the 75-yard touchdown pass on the play after his pick six. I don't know if that was his fault.

Romo said it was. I thought it was the safety's fault. But Trayvon Diggs, you know, in the conversation here early in the season for defensive MVP, The Cowboys moved to five and one. They're a good football team. They survived, but it wasn't a great effort for them. They dominated the game, actually. But they had a couple of turnovers in the game.

Prescott had a lost fumble. He had an interception in the game. They didn't run like they have run recently in the game. The Patriots are a good defensive team for sure. But they win. They survived that game, and they move on to a game two weeks from last night, Halloween night, Sunday night, Sunday night, football in Minnesota against the Vikings, both of those teams with buy weeks.

How about the game of the day going in in Baltimore, the Ravens and the Chargers? I mean, are you serious? The Chargers offensively have been unbelievable this year. They scored 47 last week against the Browns, and they got beat in Baltimore yesterday, 34 to 6. Best defensive day of the year for the Ravens as they moved to 5-1. This really does look like a Super Bowl contender in Baltimore. You know, the AFC, you've got some teams, right? You know, you've got Buffalo.

You've got the chiefs who are three and three. I understand that, but we know what the chiefs are. The Chargers were certainly considered to be one of the best teams in the AFC priority yesterday. The Ravens actually get the Bengals next. They host the Bengals Sunday at one in Baltimore. That is a first place showdown. By the way, do you realize this, that the Ravens are in the midst of playing four straight home games? They opened up the year with three out of their first four on the road.

And then something you just rarely see, four straight home games. They had a Monday nighter against the Colts, the comeback, crazy comeback from the other night. They had the game yesterday against the Chargers. They get Cincinnati this coming Sunday in a first place, AFC North Showdown. And then they get Minnesota on Sunday, November 7th. Four straight home games. That is, so you would say, well, do they have four straight road games? They don't.

They play four of their next five after that on the road. And they finish with, they finish, so it's four of the next five on the road after that. And then they finish with three of four at home. So weird scheduling for the Ravens this year. They are a legitimate Super Bowl contender. By the way, let me advise anybody that didn't see the announcement or the call to, to Lamar Jackson about his jersey being retired at Louisville. It's such a great call that was videoed.

Just search Lamar Jackson, Louisville Hall of Fame. It's about five minutes long. I love it. I love Lamar Jackson right now. How about the Packers going to Soldier Field in a competitive game? You know, it was actually a first-place showdown. The Bears had won a couple of games in a row, and the Bears actually had a 7-0 lead.

lead. They were down 17, 14 going into the fourth quarter, and then Aaron Rogers had a touchdown run with four and a half minutes to go that gave the Packers a 10-point lead. They won 24 to 14. And when Aaron Rogers scored that touchdown, he yelled to Bears fans, I still own you. I still own you. He is 22 and 5 as a starter against the Bears. The Packers move to five and one on the year. In the division, the Giants fell to 1 and 5. They got blown out by the Rams. That was a smell test pick.

Eh, wrong. The Giants opened up with a long drive, up 3-0. They get a stop. They're on the move again, and they missed on a fourth down. And I know, you know, they lost 38 to 11. But they lost Tony in that game. There was an injury to Cadarius Tony in that game, aggravated an ankle. And they had other players out.

The Giants have been really hurt by injuries. The Eagles have been as well to a certain degree in the division. I don't know what the rest of the division is going to look like when we get to the end of December, early January now, when the regular season ends. But I think that this is like an absolute lock that if they don't lose Dak Prescott, the Cowboys are going to win this division going away.

In fact, let me give you the updated division odds for the NFC East. Oh my God, the Cowboys are now minus 1,400. to win the NFC East. Updated odds on this Monday, October 18th from My Bookie. All right. That's about as big of a favorite as you can get. The favorite to finish second is the Eagles at plus 1,000. Washington's picked to finish third, the Giants fourth now, based on where you are.

But the Cowboys now, obviously, a massive favorite to win this division. You know, their schedule isn't like super easy, but it's not super tough either. They play in Minnesota. They get Denver, Atlanta. They have to play a game at Arrowhead against the Chiefs in late November. They have to play the Raiders. They have to play the Saints on the road. And they do have to play the Cardinals late in the year. So it's not as easy as I thought. But they, like everybody else in the NFC East, they still have a lot of NFC East division games left. They've got Washington, the Giants, Washington, and the Eagles still left. So they're probably looking at those games as, you know, winnable games, all of them. And, uh, The Cowboys really rolling. The game last night was crazy. Pittsburgh started off with a 14-point lead, and then Seattle came back. Gino Smith wasn't really the story until he got sacked in overtime by T.J. Watt and fumbled the football, T.J. Watt monster play.

These are what real game changers do, guys. This is what Chase Young needs to become. Think he still can, not giving up on him. But that's what a, you know, the PFF hurry rate or pressure rate, I don't want to hear those stupid-ass stats anymore. Give me how many game-changing plays. T.J. Watt, Sack Gino-Smith, forced to fumble in overtime, and Pittsburgh

hit a walk-off field goal to win the game 23-20. And then there's one more game that I should probably mention, because I know many of you want me to mention this. Actually, the Cardinals ripping the Browns and remaining undefeated

is pretty amazing. The Vikings beat the Panthers, 34 to 28 in overtime. Kirk Cousins drove him down the field for what would have been a game-winning field goal at the end of regulation, and their kicker missed. He's now in the opener, okay, for all of the stat stuffing garbage yards, can't do it with the game on the line. In the opener, he drove him from his own eight-yard line into a game-tying field goal that forced overtime in Cincinnati. Addy. People thought the Bengals were awful, and that was a bad game. Then in overtime, drove them into field goal range, and then Dalvin Cook fumbled. Week two, he drove them with 30 seconds to go into field goal range, and the kicker missed a chip shot to beat the Cardinals. All right? The Bengals and the Cardinals, in weeks one and two, Kirk drove their team into position to win the game and didn't. Week three, they blew out Seattle. Week four, they lost a tough one to Cleveland. Last week after the Lions miraculously came back and took the lead in 20, like 30 seconds,

25 seconds or whatever it was, drove them into field goal range. The field goal kicker made a kick. And then yesterday down in overtime, in regulation 2828, drove him into field goal range. The kicker missed at the end of regulation. And then he took care of it himself by driving on the opening drive down the field and throwing a 27-yard touchdown pass for a walk-off. win in Carolina. Kirk Cousins is having an outstanding season. So many of those fourth quarter

comebacks over the years have been botched by missed kicks or, you know, the defense giving it up on the other end. That narrative is old, was always inaccurate. He is right now playing at a top 10 to top 12 level. I'm not going to exaggerate it. That's essentially where it is. That's where he is right now as a quarterback, and wouldn't it be nice if, you know, you had an owner who had a coach in the building with four future head coaches in the building that could have had some security, some vision, some, you know, adult maturity to say, do I trust these guys or do I trust my 23-year-old quarterback? Because this franchise would be in a hell of a much different space, I believe if Kirk Cousins and say Kyle Shanahan were the coach and quarterback.

But whatever. I'm not better about that. One last thing before we go. Actually, more than one thing because I'm on Twitter right now and I'm seeing that Ron Rivera has spoken today. Number one is he's not considering a switch to Kyle Allen. He says, quote, I've been very confident in what we've done with Taylor. Not every week is going to be as productive as we're we want it to be close quote. So that's, I'm sure he got asked about it today. And that's what he said.

It was also announced that Antonio Gibson underwent an MRI on his lower leg. That's not good. Also, they brought in and they're working out some kickers, somebody from the Canadian Football League, and also Sam Sloan, who I think has been on an NFL roster. So there's that for news, late breaking news from the Rivera Monday presser. Secondly, I think I mentioned at the beginning of the show that I wanted to read something that Peter King wrote. Peter King, long-time NFL columnist, not my favorite by any stretch of the imagination for a lot of reasons. I'm not going to bore you right now with him. But Peter King wrote a column this morning, and I'm reading it from Pro Football Talk.

Is that who he's writing for now? Maybe. but he had a whole big write-up titled Disgusting Mess in D.C. And he talks about everything that happened and everything that's happened in the past. And then he gets to a real interesting, you know, theory. This is what he believes the theory is on the leaked emails. He writes, I'm not one who thinks the NFL was behind the release of the emails.

League officials might consider Gruden classless and a clown, I don't know. But what does Goodell's job protect the shield? He's not going to authorize the release of emails in the middle of a season that would indubitably sabotage a hot franchise in a new market, meaning the Raiders in Vegas. He's certainly not going to do it knowing there are other emails in the queue, emails the New York Times and Wall Street Journal published last week that showed an overly chummy relationship between Allen and the NFL Second in command trusted Goodell Confidant and Legal Counsel. Jeff Pash. The upshot of those emails painted Pash as a Washington Patsy. I don't know where the emails came from, Peter King writes. Several smart people in the league think the leaks came from the Snyder camp, Dan Snyder camp. Maybe he feels steamrolled by the league in its July penalty, though it was certainly exactly the opposite, talking about the $10 million fine. And yes, that was a wrist slap at best.

Maybe he's so anti-Brus Allen that he'd have a jihad out for him and anyone close to him, which Gruden is. Whoever did it, this point remains. As one prominent plugged-in source told me, the discipline against Snyder was shockingly light. You suspend Tom Brady when you never proved without a doubt that he deflated footballs, and you don't suspend Snyder for running that kind of operation in Washington, and Gruden gets ruined? it's not like Rogers protecting a guy who's good for the league anyway. Where's the fairness? He writes,

The league did send the offending emails to the Raiders for their examination 10 days ago, putting the onus on owner Mark Davis to do something about Gruden. Once it was clear that the emails would surface publicly and they did, with great detail in the Times account, Davis had no choice. However, it was termed Gruden could not walk into his diverse locker room last week. He had to go. According to someone who knows Gruden's mindset post-resignation, He is of two minds.

One, he is miserable about the families of the 22 coaches and numerous staffers he brought to Vegas who will suffer and perhaps lose NFL livelihoods because of his hurtful emails. Two, he is angry, stunned, and fuming. This person told Peter King describing Gruden that some investigation that had nothing to do with him resulted in the loss of his job. He does understand, I'm told, that the release of these emails made it impossible for him to continue as a coach. I haven't heard so many differing opinions

from around the league Peter King writes on an issue like this in a while, but this one of the smartest people in the NFL orbit struck me. Quote, this was a mafia hit on Gruden, closed quote. Anyway, he advocates for the release of the emails, which by the way, the league, the Associated Press reported on late Friday night

that the league looked through the rest of the email, and there's nothing to them. Anyway, thought that was interesting. Another person like Tommy who thinks that Snyder was the leak of these emails. All right, that's it for the day. You will hear one last one of these preseason predictions on Washington as we leave you for the day.

Tommy will be with me tomorrow, but this was Sam Ocho, talking about his NFC East predictions before the season started. Who wins? You already know it. Do detective reasoning. It's Washington. Why Washington? Defense still wins championships in the NFL. Don't ask me. Go rewatch the Super Bowl. Who had the better defense than the game? It was the butts. Yes, you had Tom Brady, but it's all about the defense and the pass rush. So what does Washington have? What does Washington do best? After the passer, Chase Young, Beast, defense was rookie at a year. Montes-Witt, Beast's Witt. Beast. They got a bunch of Beasts up.

They were already the second best defense last year, and now they're getting even more veteran. I'm telling you right now, this is how the NFC is going to finish.