The Kevin Sheehan Show - Why Washington Has A Chance

Episode Date: January 6, 2021

Cooley and Kevin today with why Washington has a chance to beat Tampa Bay on Saturday night. But so much more than that in the show today including Cooley telling a great story about his called trick play in the 2005 playoffs that we never got to see. The boys give you their lists of who CAN win the Super Bowl. Cooley also did a film breakdown of the defense against Philadelphia. Several of his grades much different than that of Pro Football Focus. 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 Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. All right, it's Cooley and Kevin Wednesday. Cooley does have a defensive film breakdown, which we will get to. A lot of you really enjoyed the show yesterday.

I don't know why Cooley, but I had so many people reach out just telling me how much they loved the show yesterday. I think a lot of people really enjoyed the film breakdown, but also the conversation about Rivera and the rotation of course. We both appreciate all the feedback, and we love doing this together. We do, and Kooli is doing Yomans work here this year with this film breakdown, and it's been great for the podcast. We're going to get to that. But I just asked you a question before we started to record this, and we just decided together we would open the show with it.

The NFL playoffs start this weekend. how many teams legitimately, I mean, legitimately in your mind, can win the Super Bowl out of the 14 in the postseason? We don't have 12. We had 14 this year. How many of those 14 can win the Super Bowl? Like, legitimately, you can go in and say, yeah, if they win the Super Bowl, it's not going to surprise me. In this little exercise that we're doing right now, I'm trying to decide who can't win the Super Bowl. And I've come to this conclusion that it's not who can't win the Super Bowl, it's who shouldn't win the Super Bowl. it's who shouldn't win the Super Bowl. And so I'm trying to get to this through process of elimination.

So if you want who shouldn't win the Super Bowl right now, Washington shouldn't win the Super Bowl, Cleveland shouldn't, Baltimore, I don't think should win the Super Bowl. The Rams, the Titans, I don't know if I think Seattle should win a Super Bowl. Okay, you've given me 16. But Seattle's gotten much better on defense now that they've gotten guys healthy. They've been, they've, the script.

They were good on offense. Then they weren't, but now they're good on defense. I'm not sure on Seattle. The Rams, I don't know what they got with the quarterback situation. They're the best defense, I think, personally, in the NFL. But they don't have the offense and they don't have the quarterback. I don't know if I believe in Tennessee's defense enough. I don't know if I believe in Randanah Hill enough in Tennessee.

Baltimore. If they get behind in any given game, which is going to happen, can Lamar Jackson not panic? He hasn't shown it to me in the first couple years. He's going to have to show it to me. Cleveland doesn't have the defense. I don't think Baker Mayfield's consistent enough, even though he's been electric at times.

Washington doesn't have the offense. And defense, I thought about this over and over the last two days with Washington. And we'll talk about it more and more. That Baltimore defense that won the Super Bowl in like 2002, with Ray Lewis. Was that the year? 2000, yeah. 2000?

Yeah. Defensive rules were different at that time. How different were that? You could hit. You weren't going to get a personal foul for hitting the quarterback. There was no penalties in the backfield for tackling the quarterback low. That was before the New England press rule came about. Yeah.

No, you're right about obviously. Back-end coverage was dynamically different. You could blow guys up, cross- in the middle of the field. They weren't going to get up for that. Safety play was incredibly different. Receivers were afraid to run across the middle of the field, at least more than they are now.

That defense would have been a different defense a little bit in today's football. I don't know if a defense can control the game truly. You know, San Francisco is as good as an example last year. And it's just because of how damn consistent they were in first and second down defense. They were the best first down defense in the league I've seen a long time last year, San Francisco.

with that defensive line and what they did on the back end. So talented. But I don't know if defense can just win a Super Bowl at this point. I think you have to have offense. Denver proved it a couple years ago as they got there, though. So as you go through Washington, they shouldn't win a Super Bowl. Could anything happen where defense takes over four games, Kev? Four?

No, that shouldn't happen. And I don't think Chicago can win a Super Bowl. So that's seven teams. So you have seven that can win it? So I have seven teams that can win the Super Bowl. And your seven are... My seven teams are Kansas City. Everyone knows Kansas City can win a Super Bowl.

In the AFC, Buffalo. Buffalo is as hot as it is. And I am... I sat down and watched three games of Josh Allen, the last three games. He's outstanding right now. He's playing at such a high level. His eyes, his footwork in the pocket, his timing is anticipating. Everything about Josh Allen, electric.

They have absolute weapons in Stefan Diggs. And they got John Brown back and Beasley's a heck of a player. And this kid, Dalton Knox is a pretty good tight end for them. I can't believe I can just rattle off Buffalo's roster. The backs are really good. They got a shot. And Buffalo plays consistent defense. They're good defense.

A Sean McDermott coach defense is a physical, tough, get after you defense. They still don't have a ton of speed. They have more than they had last year. And they were good last year. Buffalo would win a Super Bowl. I think Indy has a chance to beat Buffalo. So why doesn't Indy have a chance to win a Super Bowl? Indy's got an outstanding defense that are incredibly well-coached.

I don't know how that dude isn't right now getting talked about for a coaching job again this year. Aberfluse. But it doesn't seem. Yeah, Everflis is not getting discussed right now for a coaching job. He will. But Indies a big-time defense. They can truly run the ball, truly with Frank Reich's a great play designer. And they have really gotten it after it on.

to the ground. And Philip Rivers can make plays. He can. He can get you where you need to be. He's more of that Pete Manning, but he's better than Manning was when Manning won the Super Bowl. But that's more of that old age quarterback than what Alex Smith actually provides right now. Gosh, it would be great to have Philip Rivers right now instead of Alex.

That's true. No offense to Alex. No offense. So I think Indy can. I think Indy will. I maybe should put them in teams that can't. But I think they can. Okay.

I think Indie can. Keep them in there. And I think Pittsburgh can. I'm keeping them in there. And I think Pittsburgh can win the Super Bowl. I'm not going to buy into this. They can't run the ball thing. They can't.

Ben can do whatever he wants, and those receivers are really good. And if they don't have a bunch of drops like they've had over the last half of the season, then they're a team that can absolutely win the Super Bowl. And Pittsburgh, if you remember through the first 11 games, we're the best defense in the NFL. Yeah, they were. They're healthy.

And they're still dominant on defense. So I think Pittsburgh can win it all. In the NFC, Green Bay has shown that they are really good right now. You run it on them. But they get up on everybody, so you don't run it on them. That offense with what LaFour and Aaron Rogers are doing right now,

and Devonte Adams and the other Adams, that's the Adams family running the ball. That kid 33 doesn't have, what's his name? Aaron Jones. Aaron Jones, not Adams. Aaron Jones. Aaron Jones is a good player. Oh my God, he's really good. I mean, he's not kind of good. He's really good.

He's one of the better backs. He's a really good player. He's one of the better backs in the league. Fifth round, too, from where? He is. Not Texas. U-TAP, I think. Is he the U-Tip?

Aaron Jones was a fifth rounder U-TEP. And then the other one, Jamal Williams. U-TEP. Is it U-TEP? Yeah. Okay. I love it. I didn't look it up.

Did you look it up? No, I didn't. But I'm going to. Where's Aaron Jones from? Is it really U-TEP? It is U-TEP. Who comes out of Y-TEP? Who comes out of Y-TEP?

Sheen got it. Just hanging out in El Paso by the border. Old El Paso. Western Texas. But I mean, but Green Bay can do it. That kid Robert Tanya playing tight end has had a big time year. Yeah. They get after it in the run game if they want to,

but they don't have to because Aaron Rogers can do whatever he wants, throwing the football. And when you get down on them, they can get after the passer. And both you and I, Preston Smith and Zadaria Smith and Kamal Martin's had a pretty good year for them. I think, come on Mark, Kamal's his name. And obviously I like Adrian Amos, who they acquired a free safety from Chicago last year. It's a big time playmaker. Wasn't Chicago as a big part of that defense. Darnel Savage is an outstanding safety. I've liked Jaya Alexander for a long time. He's one of the best now. And I like Kevin King.

So I think their secondary is outstanding. If you don't run it on them, you're in big trouble. And if you don't start running on them on them early, big, big trouble. Right. And there are teams like, is Tampa really going to run it on them? Is New Orleans really going to run it on them? Who's really going to run it on Green Bay in the NFC? You know, they've been run on at times.

But you're right. like which team would run it on them in a matchup. You know, Chicago tried to stick with the run the other day, and they weren't able to run it. I thought in that game they should have run Trubisky more. I thought there should have been much more dual threat against Green Bay in that game. I watched a lot of that game on Sunday. But yeah, I mean, I guess Seattle could run it against them. A little bit, but they don't stay with it.

The Rams are the one team that really- Alvin Kamara. But Kamara is, I mean, he's electric at everything he does, but he leads to the league in receptions for a back. What did, what did, what did the Packers, the Packers would play the Saints or the Bears in the second round matchup, right? Yeah, what did? No, they would play the bear. No, they would play the lowest seed. So they'd play the Bears, the Rams, us, or Tampa.

Yeah, you reseat. So the Packers will play the lowest remaining seed after this weekend. So they'll play the Rams or the Bears. If either of those were to win. Yeah, but if it goes by seating, they're going to be the saints. If it goes by seating, they would play us. They would play us. But in reality, they'll probably play the bucks with the Saints playing the Seahawks.

I don't know. I think the Rams have a shot. Okay. Okay. And then I think New Orleans can win it all. New Orleans was my Super Bowl team, and they're hot right now with Breeze. I had Tampa, Kansas City, and you had New Orleans, Kansas City, right? Yeah.

I think. All right. And I think either New Orleans or Tampa could still win it. Both teams, electric offenses at times, very stout, good defenses. So those are my seven teams, four in the AFC, three in the NFC, and then I think there's a series of another seven that shouldn't. I'm going to say shouldn't win it. I'm not going to say can't win it at this point.

All right. The conversation really is more about who has, to me, it's like who has at least a 60% chance of winning the Super Bowl. Something like that. So I'm going to give you five teams. I think they're five teams. And there are two teams that, you know, when you were talking, I really could see winning a couple of games,

Seattle and Indianapolis. It's funny because I'm going to give you Buffalo is one of the five teams that can win the Super Bowl. But I agree with you. I think this matchup, the first playoff game of the weekend, Indy and Buffalo is very interesting because Indy can run the football. They're very well coached defensively. And they've got a guy that, you know, is going to approach this like it's his last chance in Philip Rivers.

And I've been a massive, many of you know this, I've been a massive Rivers fan. And when they beat the Chiefs a few years ago in that late season game and over with the two-point conversion at the end, and they got into the postseason and beat Baltimore, I really, I think a lot of people thought this was going to be the Rivers run and they got blown out in Foxborough. So this is an interesting setup. I'm glad Indy got into the playoffs. They were an 11-5 team, and they certainly were better than the dolphins. Certainly the dolphins with Tua if Fitzpatrick wasn't going to be eligible. So the five teams, to me, are the two number one seeds, Green Bay and Kansas City.

Although I'm very interested about the Chiefs, of course I think they can win the Super Bowl. And part of me does believe that they really were coasting in the regular season. that they just got bored to a certain degree. But I'm also interested to see them against what is a loaded AFC field. You know, they're going to get in that second round of the playoffs if it goes by seating Baltimore or Tennessee. And then in an AFC title game, potentially Buffalo. But Kansas City and Green Bay, to me, are obvious. You know, they're the one seeds.

They're going to play one less game to get there. than everybody else. And I think Green Bay, even though there are no fans, I think they definitely could have an advantage playing every game at Lambo where you could have brutally cold temperatures and even bad weather, which they seem to really excel in. Aaron Rogers in particular. I think New Orleans can win the Super Bowl. Breeze worries me a little bit. I don't know, in many ways, it's not an Alex Smith situation. I understand that. But he's not the same guy when I watch him that he's been, nor what I expect him to be. But I love that defense. I think they are exceptional defensively and maybe underrated to a certain degree defensively. And by the

way, I think Dennis Allen's are really good defensive coordinator and has been for some time. I think New Orleans can win the Super Bowl. I think that Buffalo definitely can win the Super Bowl. I mean, there is no doubt in my mind that this team right now is the most intriguing and the most dangerous. They have not been stopped in 11 weeks. It has been since the last game they played against the Chiefs, which was like a Monday afternoon on a reschedule thing. And it was, you know, in fog and rain. And it was a close game for a big part of it. They ended up losing, I think, by double digits. And since then, they have won nine of ten games with the only game they lost the Hail Mary,

Kyler Murray, to D'Andre Hopkins. They have been the hottest team in the NFL, and they have destroyed people and destroyed good defensive football teams. See, the Buccaneers come into this thing on a role against terrible defensive teams. Atlanta, Minnesota, Detroit. The bills come in to this postseason. having faced the Niners, the Steelers, the Broncos, the Patriots, and the Dolphins, all very good defensive teams.

And they destroyed those teams, destroyed them. So Buffalo, no doubt, in my mind, can win the Super Bowl. And I just think at some point they may be almost impossible to stop. That's where they've gotten. So the top four seeds, top two in the AFC, KC, Buffalo, top two in the NFC, Buffalo, top two in the NFC, Green Bay, and New Orleans. And then my fifth team is Baltimore. I think that Baltimore can front-run their way to a Super Bowl.

You know, you talked about them falling behind, which they did last year to Tennessee, which they did the year before, with a much more inexperienced team or quarterback in Lamar Jackson to the Chargers, and they were unable to come back in that game. But I definitely think the Ravens are capable of front-running. and not getting behind and running over people on the way to leads and keeping those leads. The key for Baltimore is don't fall behind by more than two scores and don't turn the ball over.

They can't turn the ball over. Their defense is good enough where they don't have to score on every drive. They're not going to need to score on every drive. Now, the thing that worries me about Baltimore that you haven't gotten necessarily with Buffalo is they're on this run at the end of the year after losing, they lost to the Steelers in that Tuesday game with RG3, a quarterback. I mean, that was a terrible game. The last legitimate loss was to Tennessee in overtime when Derek Henry had that big game.

They beat the Cowboys, Browns, Jags, Giants, and Bengals down the stretch. And that Browns game on that Monday night was a phenomenal game, one of the games of the year. I think Baltimore is capable of front-running their way to a Super Bowl and not falling behind by two scores and having good defense and a run attack. By the way, Coolly, how good is Gus Edwards? Like every time I turn on a Baltimore game.

Well, he's good, but J.K. Dobbins has been the guy. I understand that. But Gus Edwards, you know, when he gets, that's five, it seems like it's five yards every single time he touches it. Every single time. It seems to me that when Baltimore runs the football, it's almost a fluke if they don't get five yards.

Well, they lead the league in yards per play, rushing the football. Obviously, they lead the league in yard for game, but they're predominantly a running team. That said, for a running team, they still lead the league in yards for play. They average five and a half yards per carry when they run the football. Yeah, they're averaging. Are they averaging 200 yards a game rushing or not? Not 191. 192, really.

Do you know what they did against Cincinnati on Sunday? Do you know what they did rushing-wise? Yeah. They rush for 404 yards. A four, that's an NFL game. That's not, you, when was the last time an NFL team rushed for 404 yards? We didn't do a lot of other NFL. Here it is.

It's been like 40 years or something. Yeah, here it is. The fourth team since 1950 to rush for more than 400 in a single game. So it's only happened four times in the last 70 years of the NFL. I mean, Baltimore. I mean, it's a little bit different because they played a team who didn't give a damn in week 17, where they had to win. Well, Cincinnati had been actually playing pretty well.

Yeah, but there's some context to that. Okay. Cincinnati wasn't a good defense either, and it's in week 17, and they had to win a game. Yeah, I understand. The problem of Baltimore is the worst team in the league in throwing the football. They have less yards per game than the Jets throwing the football. Yeah, but he throws it okay in the red zone. You know, they get down there, and then all of a sudden, there's some big tight end like Andrews or somebody else wide open.

You know, I don't, I, Baltimore is my fifth team. I think those five teams, Casey Baltimore, Casey Buffalo, Baltimore, Green Bay, New Orleans. You know, I'm hesitant to say Seattle, because every time I watch them, they have Russell Wilson and D.K. Metcalfe. And that should, that, that should automatically have them into that category of teams that can win it. I just, I've watched them, they just aren't very impressive to me. They almost lost to the 49ers who really gave professional efforts down the stretch. The Rams game was ugly. It was an ugly win. The win here was ugly. You know, against Haskins. They had a chance to lose that game. They lost to the Giants within the last month.

I just don't buy the Seahawks right now. The indie thing to me is more intriguing because I've been a fan of that team all year long. I'm totally with you. I think they are so well-coached and now they are really, they've gotten Jonathan Taylor going. Jonathan Taylor rushed for 250 yards on Sunday against Jacksonville. He was a back. I loved coming out of Wisconsin. There were moments earlier in the year where it was like, he might not be the guy, but he's had a couple of monster games here over the last month, and he capped it off with a 250-yard-plus performance against Jacksonville in a game they had to have.

If they can run the football and keep Josh Allen off the field and then have Rivers, lose the game. I think Rivers can win games. Don't get me wrong. I also think as much as I love him, he can also lose a game for you very easily by taking a risk that's unnecessary, like the one he took in Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago, that had him on the brink of being eliminated from the playoff set 11 and 5. There is something very intriguing about indie to me. There is. And it's not going to shock me if that game Saturday is down to the fourth quarter. And it would be by the way, the first close game Buffalo's been involved in in a long time. When's the last, it was the Cardinal game?

The Hail Mary game. The Hail Mary game. They've annihilated people. Annihilated people. But I'm with you on Indy a little bit, but I don't think that they can win three games on the road. Not that the road means. The thing is the road's not the road anymore, which is probably why I have seven teams that can win this. Yep.

You know, the first game of the weekend, that Indy Buffalo game is really an intriguing game. By the way, that line is under seven, and I would suggest to you right now that when we get to Friday, that indie's going to be in the smell test. I don't know how many other teams are going to be in the smell test, probably the Bears, because I don't think anybody's going to have the Bears against the Saints. The Saints are laying a big number, but still, the public, I would imagine, when we get to later in the week, I'm going to get information that the public's playing the Saints and the bills probably more than, and probably the bucks, too.

But that indie game, that indie game is going to be really interesting. Also, what's the weather? Because it's Buffalo. Jesus, we've got to look that up real quickly. What is the weather? Buffalo, New York, Saturday, partly sunny 30 degrees. So, you know, a good football day, not what it could have been. in Buffalo this time of year.

By the way, they're going to have fans, too, right? Didn't they clear the way for a certain percentage? Yeah. Anyway, you've got seven teams. I've got five teams that can win it all. I would be very surprised if the Super Bowl winner comes from the other nine teams that I didn't mention. I'd be, and I didn't mention Tampa Bay, Coolly, and they were my pick.

I did not put Tampa in there. I am not sold on Tampa. I think that I love Ariens. I love Bowls. I love their talent. I think what was wrong with them just a month ago when there were reports about Ariens and Brady and Brady was unhappy and Ariens was unhappy

and the whole thing after they had lost a couple of games to the Rams and the Chiefs, just because they beat the Vikings who had a kicker missed three field goals and an extra point, The Falcons twice in the Lions. And by the way, the first Falcons game, they were down 17-0 at halftime to the Falcons in that game. The Falcons are terrible on defense.

The Vikings are terrible on defense. The Lions in that Saturday game, that wasn't even a game. I mean, you know, Chase Daniel and David Blow were the quarterbacks for the lions. I just don't know if they've proven it to me that against good, teams they can win because they haven't. Have they even beaten a team yet this year? Well, they beat Green Bay. They beat Green Bay. They beat Green Bay. They pressured the hell out of Aaron Rogers and he threw some picks and and they beat Green Bay pretty soundly. But that was a long time ago now. That had to be what, late September, maybe, early October. Whatever. It was, it was earlier in the

year. It was, yeah, early October probably. I just don't see Tampa being in the Super Bowl. I don't see it. And I mean, anyway, when we come back before Cooley starts his defensive film breakdown, I do have a question for Chris about the game Saturday night. And I will ask that of him and myself right after this word from one of our sponsors. All right, Cooley's defensive film breakdown coming up. Again, if you missed the offensive film breakdown,

I would urge you to go listen to it, especially the Alex Smith. piece and I think also Kooley's idea of what they should be doing more of. Go listen to yesterday's show. My question to you, which I will answer as well after you answer it, is they're here. They made it. They're in the playoffs. They have their first playoff game in five years.

They will try to win their first playoff game in 15 years. Okay. the 15 years ago this week, you were a part of the team that won the organization's last playoff game, and it was at Tampa Bay. And it was a game in which there wasn't much offense produced. In fact, I think it was the lowest yardage total of a winning playoff team in NFL history at that point. I think it was, what, like 110 yards of total offense, something like that.

But you guys won 17 to 10. You went to Seattle the following week, and Carlos Rodgers. had a pick six in his hands and dropped it for a 10-0-0 lead in the second quarter after you had knocked out. LeVar had knocked out Sean Alexander. By the way, real quickly, before I ask you the question that I'm going to ask you, what do you remember about that playoff win at Tampa? I remember thinking that there was no way we were going to lose a football game. At that point, you'd won a bunch in a row.

Yeah, we'd won a bunch in a row. I remember I had a couple big catches in that game. I remember at one point we had a double pass that I was going to throw that we actually called, went to the field with, or broke the huddle with, and then there was a timeout called, and I was devastated because Joe changed the play call. You were going to throw a pass? Mm-hmm. Did you ever throw a pass in your career? No. What?

Can't do you have a good arm? Yeah. Really? Oh, yeah. Why? I mean, I never knew this. At that point, we, now this, this had nothing to do with, do I have a good arm as a quarterback?

But at that point, we always played punt pasts and kick and all these stupid games. I could throw it 70 yards in the air. Really? I can still throw it 60. Really? Uh-huh. An athlete, buddy. I was a baseball player.

I'm in the center fielder. I know you. I know you're an athlete. I just didn't think that you were that kind of... I didn't think that quarterback would have been a position you would have ever played at any point in your life. Oh, we haven't talked about this? No.

My biggest regret in sports is that I wasn't a quarterback. I was always the quarterback. And then we moved to Utah. And what happened then? well in my before my freshman year of high school i went to wyoming to spend the summer with my father right and that was when the freshman team had the passing league and the whole high school had the the passing league the seven-on-seven stuff which i missed i went and played baseball in Wyoming hung out all summer with my dad i came back and they said yeah you're not the quarterback

anymore well curtis lovelin's going to be the quarterback it's like okay And so I changed to cornerback and wide receiver. I weighed 127 pounds to start my freshman season. Did Curtis throw you some balls? Well, I didn't really play very much on the freshman team. I returned kicks and I played some DB. Okay. But I would have been a great quarterback.

I really have always believed that I would have been a great quarterback. I never had a chance to do that. So you have you have a strong arm. you had a strong arm. Did you have a good arm, like touch-wise? Yeah. Great touch arm. Interesting.

I went into a JV game as a sophomore. Curtis Lovelin got hurt. I threw two touchdown passes, brought us back for a win and overtime. You did? Yeah. And so why didn't you get the start? Where in number 89? The wide receiver was also the backup quarterback.

At that point, I had grown 40 pounds. I'd made the transition to tight end. And was Curtis any good? He was fine. So that was on the JV. What happened Varsity? Well, then I went back and played the, play Tide End. Yeah, on Varsity.

That was my sophomore year. Yeah. A varsity? I didn't play on a varsity team until I was a senior. You didn't play on varsity as a junior? No. You played JV as a junior. I was really good, though.

I bet you were. Was that an unusual thing to keep juniors on the junior varsity? No. God, or yes. Yeah, I mean, we have, look, it was the high school football in Utah in 1997 and 1998. I understand this, but you were. There was a tight end, Jason Stevens, and there was a defensive end, Jake Smith, still two of my favorite people in the world and went fishing with them in Riverton, Wyoming this summer.

They both got Division I scholarships to Utah State, but two Division I, and players at the position I played. God forbid, I play another spot on the field. Well, I was just going to say, I mean, you were an all-American wrestler. You were one of the highest recruited wrestlers in America. And you're telling me that they had you on the JV football team as a junior. They couldn't find a position for you on the varsity as a junior, as strong as you were. No. I had a JV game with 17 receptions and seven sacks. You have told me about that. I just didn't realize it was as a junior. Yeah.

17 receptions and seven sats in a game. That's a pretty good game. We went back and watched it one day. I had no idea. You didn't count receptions and stats in a JV game anyways. But we went back 10 years later and watched it. My mom had filmed it from the stands. Watch someone dominate a game, buddy.

What number were you wearing, 89? I think I'd changed to 99 at that point. Okay. My senior year I wore 99. And the 2D1 guys at your position were gone. then. Because if not, maybe they would have kept you on the JV as a senior. I was going to alternate plays, alternate series on offense as a tight end, my senior year. With Tori Holt.

With who? Tori Holt. Tori Holt went to your high school? No, it wasn't Tori Holt. It was Tori. I can't remember his last name. No, not the, no, Tori Holt was in the NFL at the time I was in high school. He's in the Hall of Fame.

He can't remember Tori's last name. I scored a touchdown in Bear River, Utah, on the first series, cut a seam ball, broke two tackles, took it 50 yards, came off and said, I'm not coming out. Didn't after that. Tori Holtz not in the Hall of Fame. He's on the Hall of Fame final list for this year. He's a Hall of Famer.

So anyways, all back to that, I always thought I should have been a quarterback. I still do. I wish I could go back and do it. If I could go back and do it again, I'd go back and tell him I'm only playing quarterback. So back to the Tampa game in January of 2006. That was the Seattle game that I was going to throw a pass. Oh, I thought you said it was. And they called time out.

Yeah. And we came back to the huddle and Joe changed the play. We never called it. It was off the old college screen. Do you know that Clinton Portis threw a pass in that game? I do. It was incomplete, but he threw a pass. You guys, you know, I want to come back to this in one.

Put us through a touchdown pass to me three weeks earlier against the Giants at FedEx failed. I do remember that. And you guys ended the season with the Giants at FedEx needing to win the game to get into the postseason. And then you had Philadelphia on New Year's Day, which was the following week to win. That was the Sean Taylor fumble return game that clinched the playoff spot and clinched what was a five-game win streak right to end that season. So I want to come back to the play call in a moment at Seattle. You know, Joe, and I've mentioned this many times over the years, one of the things I loved about Joe,

and sometimes I would put it in the context of the Marty Schottenheimer George Allen comparison that I've made, that both of those guys to me are Hall of Fame, all-time great coaches, but they really, really got conservative. They were conservative anyway, but they really got conservative at the worst possible times, which is probably why they're post.

season records weren't that good. Joe, who wasn't necessarily a massive risk taker in the regular season, became a huge risk taker in his team's biggest games in the postseason. If you go back to, you know, the NFC championship game against the 49ers in January of 1984 following the 83 season, they try, you know, on a kickoff return, a throwback to Daryl Green. Rigo threw a pass in that game. Brian Mitchell had a fake punt in a playoff game against the Vikings. Gibbs went for it. In the biggest games, Gibbs pulled out all the stops and went for it. It's one of the reasons I think he was so successful in the postseason, especially on the road where I think he was like, basically like, fuck it. We need to do something special here today. We're going for the win. We're not playing

not to lose. We're playing to win. And in that particular Tampa game, I just went back and looked at it. Obviously, that was a dreadful game offensively. The total amount of yards for Washington was 120. Mark Brunel was 7 to 15 for 41 yards passing. 41 yards. Chris Sims, however, through three interceptions and Cadillac Williams lost a fumble. And that was the difference. Remember, Sean got thrown out of the game for spitting in Pittman's face. And then everyone said he didn't spit, but you cut it on TV. Portis threw a pass in that game too, incomplete.

So Portis tried a half-back pass at Tampa. It didn't matter. You guys won the game 17-10. And then the following week, Portis also tried a half-back pass incomplete. But you're telling me that in that game, and then there was a timeout that ruined it, how was it going to work? How are you going to throw the pass? Was it going to be a backwards pass from Brunel

and then you were going to throw it as a wide receiver? Yeah, I was split out to the, I was split out to the, in a widened bunch set as a wide receiver, and there was going to be one dude in front of me, if not two. And then I was going to throw the pass. Who were you going to throw it too? I don't even remember the route coming. I think it was thrash.

I can't even remember who I was going to throw it to. Why didn't he ever dial that up again? I don't know. How much did you practice? I would have carried over. Probably would have carried over to the next week, two or three times. And how did it work in practice? Great.

Who discovered that you had a good enough arm to try this? It was probably Joe. That was the year that Brian Kozlowski and I really became very close. And we would sprint down to the practice field every day. the second the median end, we would drag all our stuff out of our locker as fast as we could. And you're always, you get 40 minutes, 35, 40, 50 minutes before practice actually starts from the time the median ends. We'd be out there in two minutes with all our stuff, playing pump, passing kick, kicking field goals, playing a baseball game with all kinds of games. A great arm.

Joe would watch us from his office. You guys are crazy. But did he ever, did he say to you at some point, hey, you got a pretty good arm? I don't remember. You really don't? No. It just ended up in, in, on the, a play that ended up in the playbook and then you started to practice it before that playoff game? Or did you practice it during the regular season?

It's exactly right. Okay. No, that game that week. Yeah. I had never done it before. Crazy. Crazy. I can't, it was in the third quarter.

It was in a critical spot in the game. I think it was, we were down something like that. like 1710. And if I remember, I'm trying to find a, if I saw the exact situation, trying to find a play by play. I've got the play by play right here. I think it's third quarter.

Find a timeout called randomly in the late second or third quarter. If it was 17 to 10, hold on here for a second. I can't remember the exact score. And was it, what do you want for this? What side are you on? Pro football reference. Washington's, was it a Washington's,

timeout or a Seattle timeout. Do you remember? I think it was a Seattle timeout. Okay, let me go see in the third quarter. Okay, here it is. Here it is. I bet you this is it. Third quarter, Mark Brunel had just

completed a pass to Robert Royal for a first down, and it was first in 10 at the Seattle 44-yard line. Okay? And Seattle call the time-out. And then the play coming out It was a Brunel pass to Clinton Portis for nine yards. That would have been it.

Let's see what the score was. Just make sure there wasn't another time. It might have been before a third down that we didn't convert, though. Seattle only called one time out in the second half it would appear. And that was the spot. I don't think Seattle called another. I mean, the odds that they would have called it before my one play. It's just so bad.

Yeah, because the only other three timeouts called in the second half were Washington timeouts on defense to try to get the ball back, except with like 50 seconds to go. With 50 seconds to go, you guys were down 20 to 13. Remember, there was a big missed field goal in that game. Right? There was a huge missed field goal. Yeah, it was 20 to, it was 17 to 13. Hold on for a second. The pro football reference play-by-play is harder than some of the others.

No, I understand. It was 17 to 10, and John Hall missed a pretty short field goal that would have made it 17 to 13. And then Seattle ended up taking a 20 to 10 lead, and then you guys used your timeouts at the very end. So, yeah, it would have been the Seattle timeout in the third quarter. With the score, the score at that point, Cooley was 14 to 3, Seattle. It was 14 to 3. But you guys were moving into their territory when it happened. I love those stories.

I don't know why. It came after like a penalty too. Did it? Yeah, you're right. Mark Brunel. It was first in 10 at Seattle 44. Brunel got sacked, but there was a defensive off sides. And so then it was first in five, and Brunel threw to Robert Royal for a first down.

and then the Seahawks called But that was a penalty on like Jimmy Ferris. Okay, now you're looking at the same thing I'm looking at. No, Jimmy was, I'm not looking at it because I have this stupid football database thing up that I just see the stats. Yeah. I'm just trying to recall, like as you tell me the situation, I remember the deal. Yeah. Isn't it funny how some guys remember?

Like there are certain guys that remember every play of the game. Yeah. I got to have you hold my hand through it. Yeah. I also, here's the other thing I truly remember. I remember sitting on the plane on the ride home, the long flight from Seattle and go, this will be easy.

We'll do this again. We'll be there next year. Yeah, right. Never thinking how hard it was going to be to get to that point in the playoffs again. And in hindsight, how hot we were in the kind of run we were on to lose that football game. I truly think we were a better team than Seattle that year.

We should have scored more points that week. Yeah. We had 11 first downs. Oh, it was pathetic. 11. You had Taylor Jacobs out there who sucked. He was terrible, wasn't he? It wasn't good.

He was in route. He was not good. He was a second round pick. It was, who was the receiver that was hurt and out? and that's why Taylor Jake... David... David Patton. Patton.

Yeah, Patton. Right. Once, you know, it's funny, when he got hurt, that's when the offense started to struggle, right? I think so. Mm-hmm. And, uh, anyway. Anyway.

All right. Well, that, you know, 15 years it's been since Washington won a playoff game. It was against Tampa in Tampa. You were on that team, 1710. Believe it or not, and I had somebody on from Tampa this morning. on the radio show. I didn't realize this. It's been 18 years since Tampa Bay won a playoff game. And it was the Super Bowl over the Raiders. They have not won a playoff game since then. That's unheard of. Actually, that, yeah. How long has it been since even like Cleveland hasn't

been in the playoffs for how many years? Right. It's like Washington and Detroit and Cleveland, you know, or like the teams with the least amount of playoff wins over the last 25 years or something like that. I may be forgetting another team. Whatever. I'm going to get to this question. We obviously got sidetracked. I'm going to get to this question that I have for you. And I'm also going to give you a comparison of what Washington is right now. And I think you might like the comparison. We'll do that right after this word from one of our sponsors. Coolie's film breakdown coming up, I promise you. All right, two things. Number one, my question for you is this.

Going into the game on Saturday night, is there anything that you're confident in? I think it's a weird game in that you've got a quarterback issue, you've got Brady and the Buccaneers on at least a perceived role, you're a big underdog. Is there anything positive, positive? I guess it could be negative too. Is there anything that you're absolutely sure of about this game? This seems crazy to say this because I was thinking about it as I was doing the film breakdown, but I'm sure of the fact that they'll stop the run.

And they should get after Tom Brady on the back end of things. I don't see Tampa running it against Washington. I think Washington's going to be able to stay in a four-down front and Payne and Allen and everybody up front's going to be able to get after the run. They'll stop Ronald Jones. And I think I'm sure that they'll get after Tom Brady. It's just can they get after him quick enough with interior pressure that he doesn't get the ball down the field early?

I'm not sure of how the back end will play out. I'm not sure with those receivers, how it will play out. So the question is, how does Del Rio play him in the back end? Do you play them tight? Do you press them? Do you try to stay with them? Does Brady get the ball out of his hands quick? Can you start to put pressure in Brady's face?

Can you start to make him work a little bit harder than he has to work? But I'm pretty sure that they limit Tampa Bay and make them fairly one-dimensional. Okay. My answer to the same question is I am absolutely confident that Washington is going to keep this game competitive. And the reason I say this is the same reason I gave you when they hired Rivera and I said, I like the hire. Because as a football fan, as a football better over the years, in watching Rivera's teams in big games in the postseason, they always seem to overachieve.

They always were tough and they were always a tough out even when they lost. He's three and four as a playoff coach. and I'm going to give you some of these games because I remember them very specifically. The first year that they got to the playoffs with Cam Newton, they lost to the 49ers as a division champion at home, 23 to 10. That was a 49er team with Kaepernick, you know, in the year after 2012. They got back to the, you know, NFC championship game that year. They still had, they had some veteran players, you know, Vernon Davis, Anquan Bolden, the whole thing. But it was a tight game. By the way, I had the wrong.

side in that game. I was on Carolina plus the one. They were the division champion playing at home, and they were an underdog to the 49ers, and I remember having Carolina. And it was a very tight game until late. Like it was, I don't know, 10-10 at halftime, something like that. That was their first playoff game. The next year, when they got to the postseason, as a 7, 8, and 1 team, all right, which is, I think, a huge influencer on this season, where Rivera recognized in a bad division they could make a run and get in. They beat the Cardinals. Now they beat the Cardinals without Carson Palmer.

Ryan Lindley was the quarterback that day, and they destroyed them as a 7-8-1 wild card team, or division winner, excuse me, playing a home game against an 11-5 but banged-up Cardinals team, and they just destroyed them. They completely shut them down. And then in the next game, Cooley, they went to Seattle. Seattle would eventually be in the Super Bowl that year,

losing to the Patriots and that Malcolm Bucle. Butler Interception game. That game was a war through three quarters. Carolina was so tough against a much better team. They were the inferior team, and I remember I lost this wager. I had Carolina like plus 10, plus 11, something like that. And this game was like 14 to 10 with Carolina driving in the fourth quarter. And then it got away from them. And it got away from them. And it got away from them and they ended up losing like 3117, I think was the final. But for three quarters, they were right there, right there. The next year was the year they went to the Super Bowl. You know, they beat the Seahawks, remember, and then they crushed the Cardinals in the NFC

championship game 49 to 15, and then they lost to Denver in the Super Bowl. The last playoff game with Ron Rivera, they played in the Superdome against the Saints who were really, really good that year, as a wild card team in the first round. That was the year that the Saints lost on the Stefan Diggs Hail Mary from Case Keenham the next week. But in that first round game, I remember I was like, I'm betting the Panthers. Not because of smell tests or anything.

I'm just betting the Panthers. I know they are going to be tough, and they're going to have a chance to win this game. This is what Rivera's teams do. And I talked to him about this game, because I had them on the radio show during the summer, and I said, you know, I always felt like your teams were tough and disciplined and played well in the big games. And I remember your last

playoff game. And we talked about that game for like a minute and a half. He remembered it very, well. They were right there. They had the ball at the end of the game on the move to win the game down five. By the way, it was an easy cover. I think there were seven or a six and a half point underdog, something like that. And Cam Newton took a big sack at the worst possible time. There was like a dropped pass that would have put the ball down at like the New Orleans seven-yard line. On the next play, Newton took a big sack and they ended up losing by five. But no one gave them a chance of being in that game. Nobody gave them a chance of being in that game, and they were right there.

I am confident that they're going to be really tough and disciplined and physical. And, you know, part of that is because of what they have on defense and that it's not going to be a blowout. I don't know if they cover the eight. You know, maybe it's like some of the games they were in where, you know, at the end of three quarters, it's 17, 13, and they're legitimately in it. And Brady's been sacked three times already. And maybe, you know, they get two field goals and win the game 23, 13 or 27 to 13. But it's going to be, it's not going to be a one-sided beat down.

I'm confident about that. I really am. This is who Rivera's been in big games with a good deal. defense with a good defensive football team. I think that they're going to be in this game. I don't know that they win it. I don't even know if they cover it. But I think that there's going to be a sense as we're watching this game that, wow, they came to play. They did not shrink from the occasion. They're here. They're here to win it. And you're going to feel at some moment in the game, you know, in the second half that they've got a chance to win it. That's what I'm confident in.

I think that fits into, I think, you know, what I'm talking about is they make it really hard for Tampa on offense. Yeah, that'll probably do. I don't think Tampa can stay balanced. I just think if Washington's offense can't muster anything, can't get two or three of those drives, can't start putting things together against a very good defense, then it just might be too much as you get into the fourth quarter. I also think that that'd be my concern with the, they wouldn't cover. They're going to be

in this game. I think so too. But yeah, the concern with not covering would just be that you just don't have it on offense. I don't know. I talked about it yesterday with the film breakdown stuff. I do think that there's weapons. I think that there's things that they can get done. There's things that they can do. There's some more balance that they can create. I bet you they'll dial up some trick play too.

Riverboat Ron's going to dial up something in a playoff game. we'll see I hope it doesn't rely on Stephen Sims Real quickly before you start your film breakdown I think that this team

and I'm not saying it's going to continue this way but this team right now is the Houston Texans under Bill O'Brien did I say this to you yesterday or not? No it's the team that

qualified for the postseason winning their division you know, Bill O'Brien did it four times. He won four division titles in the AFC South with nine and seven records and bad quarterbacks until he finally got to Sean Watson. And those first couple of years, remember it was like Tom Savage, and I forget who else was playing quarterback, just, you know, horrible quarterbacking situations, but a really hard-nosed, tough defense. And they actually won a playoff game and ended up, you know, losing, you know, a couple as well. I think the Houston Texans comp under Bill O'Brien in those first few years,

that's what this team is on Saturday night. They are a limited team offensively without really an answer quarterback, but a pretty tough defense. I'm not saying they have J.J. Watt on their team, but they may have a young J.J. Watt on their team. So anyway, I just wanted to throw out that comparison to you. I think you're close. I think you're close

I think it's really similar to the 2005 Washington team to be honest with you dominating defense and probably better players than Washington had in that year in the 05 year

with an offense who really towards the end of the year seems like it's running out of gas yeah and Brunel was hurt too wasn't he he just seemed to run out of gas arm strength-wise at the end of that year.

I think so. All right. Let's get to Cooley's Film Breakdown. We're going in-depth, play-by-play. The Cooley Film Breakdown. Here's Cooley and Kevin. Three, two, one. The defensive film breakdown that Kevin just suggested,

I ripped through pretty good. We'll rip through it. Well, the only reason I say that is I think people are pumped up for the playoff. game. And I'm pumped, I thought yesterday's film breakdown was one of your best, actually, of the year. But you get to Wednesday before a playoff game. And I think this is why we're putting the film breakdown sort of at the end of this show, rather than more prominently featured. It's a, it's a, it's a producer's decision here. I think a lot of people that are listening are interested in the film breakdown, but I think they're also now gearing up for the next

game. So that's why I said, you know, rip through it quickly if you can. Let's rock and roll. Okay. Start with Chase Young. The positives. It's Chase Young. Look at the read option play. Oh, my God. Or the zone, sorry, the zone read play. No, read option's fine. It's not, it's not an RPO.

Yeah, whatever, read option. RDO. I've always titled the RDO, read option. Oh my God, Kevin. The ability to get five yards into the backfield, as fast as he got into the backfield, because he gains ground so quickly with every step, allows him athletically to then make this decision where I think I can fake out the quarterback by looking like I'm going to tackle the back running down the line of scrimmage. But in hindsight, I know he's going to pull it because I have that football awareness to then go tackle the quarterback before he even takes another step. Come on. You should be a shame to run zone read, Chase Young. pay for that.

Don't do that again. Tom Brady, I dare you. Coming after you, Tom. No worries there. No, no worries there. To see run action pass and then so naturally transition from his gap fit in the run game to a pass rush to end up getting a pressure and a touch of a quarterback. It's pretty incredible.

Did it two or three times. Really gifted on the edge to take on and avoid blocks, front side zone stuff, to take on post the top. tight end, skinny around the tackle, turn his body, twist his body, manipulate, be gaining ground, upfield. He's so fast, he's so athletic. It's crazy. Reaction and anticipation on the throwback screen that Collinsworth said was such great eyes by Jalen Hertz. Yeah. Okay. But watch Chase Young's reaction. Both Alan and Chase Young are like, yep, we know this is throwback screen. We'll go stand over there and wait for it. It's awesome.

Rush is late in the game, a third and one rush on the first drive of the third. quarter they'd gotten to a third and one he's running hurts down a third and seven rush oh yeah great speed rush off of the offensive right tackle really really good um it's just fun to watch the negatives there's two or three times where and this could potentially be that he's an inside player but two or three is not they're running zone read at him and he's just got these quicks to try to slip inside both the tight end and the tackle and penetrate up field and it's just really hard to do that. Like you're running, they're double teaming with the tight end and defensive end, double teaming Chase Young to get up to the backer. The back's track is to get outside as soon as

Chase Young goes inside, unless he's four yards up the field, which he's two and a half, the back's going to get outside. So it happened a couple times. A couple times he's taking risks. That Kevin, I prefer he takes because if you're the tackle on tight end or you're that front side guy blocking him, you're going, I have no clue. The unpredictability here makes this really, really hard. And so if he is to stay outside, you're tentative to get out to him. And it's really, really tough. And then there was a big Boston Scott run in the third quarter, the one where they really gashed him. Yeah. I don't think this is actually Chey Chung, but both Chase Young and Bostick are playing the quarterback on the zone ring. So there's nobody hanging in the middle of the

field for Scott. Yeah, I'm watching that play right now. So, I mean, Tim Settle gets Kendall Reyesed, but there's Bostick and Chase Young miscommunicate who's going to play that probably not going to be a problem this week with the quarterback. Yeah. Chase Young was an A minus in this game. He had five or six quarterback hurries, two or three quarterback hits. He didn't have any sacks. He didn't have any change game type of plays.

But my gosh, Kev. I mean, your worst case is he's a B-plus, just not having massive impact plays. Montez Sweat, also really good in this game. the ability to play the quarterback for sweat he has the ability athletically on the zodryd stuff to play the quarterback make sure he doesn't pull it and then tackle the back you saw later in the game where he doesn't have the ability to do what chase young does which is show that you're going to tackle the back and then bail back out to the quarterback there's one where i think it was the the hurts touchdown early in the game where he gets outside of sweat not quite that freaking but he's close turn to the first drive of the game the arm extension and control of Kelsey there is

I mean he's just awesome man there's an upfield rush and he's falling off for a tackle on a draw where he's five yards upfield and then he's back across the face of the right tackle that's great he had a big sack in this game that didn't count on a Holcomb hold on the Holcomb hold yeah

really good play pressure two plays with 20 seconds before the half push hurts back 20 yards there's a sprint out play when they got down to goal to go in the third quarter where they ended up not getting it on fourth down I think it was the second or third down play they sprint right the tackle's trying to arc out and reach sweat he does a really good job with his footwork on his first two steps sweat fights through that and he battles across face of the tackle Then the back tries to chip him and then sweat knocks the back back. Now he's chasing Hurdstown to force a throw away. You're like, who is this monster?

He's a problem, man. He's a problem. You know, the one zone replay missed hurts is one of the negatives, but I thought sweat was an A in this game. John Allen, part of at least six tackles. And to me, you could look at this game and say, man, Alan's a guy that's got to be able to be more impact. is creating pressure from the inside and getting rid of blocks and stuff.

I noted, as I watched through most of the first half, that I thought Alan never lost patience pushing the pocket. And even on end tackle stunts where he looped outside, he probably could have tried to swim move or tried to shed and throw and release. But he knew as soon as he gets out of his pass lane that Hertz is going to run. And so to try to keep Hertz in the pocket, Alan did such a good job all day. Now, hurt got out, but none of it was because of John Allen.

So I thought he was really patient and disciplined with his rush lanes, while also bullrushing and creating pressure. It was a front side zone play that Collinsworth pointed out in the game where he's taken on a double team. He actually slightly gets behind the backside of the double team and then battles across the guards face and then back across the tackle's face and then back out and makes a tackle for no game. And you're like, who's this monster?

It's in the second quarter. We talk about the throwback screen. Great anticipation by Alan. Control over the line of scrimmage throughout this entire game and the run game is outstanding. His post, his extension of arms, his ability to see, shed, make tackles, really good. Go to watch the first two or three run plays as they get down to the goal to go in the third quarter. And John Allen's just awesome right there. Alan was a B-plus in this game.

Don't you think he's a little bit underrated because of the attention that Sweat and Chase Young get in particular? That he's unheralded, that he's not given it. Totally believe he's. Totally believe it. And I think he's such a team player because you could sit here and say, John Allen had eight sacks last year. Let's go get another eight sacks. And why isn't he?

Well, last year they asked the defensive ends or the outside linebackers to push the pocket. And they really allowed the interior guys to free up a little bit more. And also keep in mind, Last year in that three forefront, there's three interior guys, so you're getting more one-on-one matchups a lot of those times. And so you're pushing the pocket from outside to let the guys rush on the inside. This year, you're asking Payne and Allen really to just control and push the pocket from the inside to let the outside guys get there because that's the best way to get there right now.

Well, the outside guys last year were in coverage a lot of the time. Well, they were sometimes, but even in third down situation, it's like, okay, we would rather have Kerrigan push the pocket and try to collapse the pocket without hard upfield speed rush because I don't think he can win, just have him push the pocket and crash it down. And then let a guy like Allen try to use and make some moves inside. I think there's just a different way of looking at it. And I think that's what they're doing and that's why he's got less sacks. But he's a very good player.

Very good player, very good pass rush. You're very consistent, very disciplined. really having a I thought he struggled in the year a couple weeks and after week seven I think he's been a B plus A minus player in every game.

Okay. Dron Payne. Yeah. I mean, his same as Alan. Like when he extends his arms, when he there was a couple times where he took Travis Kelsey, extended both his arms, held him, looked, found

the ball carrier, got rid of Travis Kelsey, or Jason Kelsey. And then he's in on the tackle and you're like, that's a Proble Center. That's a really good player that he's doing that to. Yeah. It's unbelievable. I love him.

I mean, good initial steps on a run action pass. Oh, this was one of the negasari. I'll get to that in a second. The ability to play some of the zone read for him, like, again, extend Kelsey, play the run and then get back into the quarterback. You're like, oh my gosh, it's crazy. chasing down hurts outside of the pocket once hurts gets outside of pain but pain's got some speed man the one where he's diving he's not that far away and there's another one on a sprint out where

or a rollout where he is forcing a bad throw i just he's big time inside you know a couple of the negatives i wrote this was early in the game it looked like they were going to have a run play a zone run play and then they boot pain wins on the zone I'm going to stop myself and slow down. They do run a zone run play. Hertz shows boot action. He does not have the ball. It's handed off.

Pain wins on the run and then bails back to play Hertz on the boot. But Jeff sweats there to take care of the boot. Jeff would be for those dimensions. So I'm going, why are you, what are you seeing to think that you need to go back that way? Who he knows it's Montes. I know it's Montes. He guesses a couple times with some of the things in the run place. But I thought Durant Payne was really, I thought he was really good in this game.

I wanted to stop right there and just mention this. To anybody that takes pro football focus grades really seriously, I graded Durant Payne in A-minus. On pro football focus, he played 35 plays. He was graded at a 49.6. They start their grading system. If you played one play and didn't have an up or down, you would be a 60.

A 60 is essentially a C for them. A 49.6 means he had more negative plays than positive plays in this game. What are they missing? Does he have to swallow somebody up two yards beyond the line of scrimmage to have a positive play? I think so. As a one gap D-Linman, I haven't seen very many people play it better than a lot of the time he did in Philly this week. How many snaps did they have for him?

Oh, excuse me, 59 plays, 59 snaps. Yeah, he had 59 snaps. About a 68. Yeah. I just don't get it. He didn't have a bunch of tackles. He didn't have any sacks. But he was such an impact in the.

game. Anyway, there's going to be two other players that I'm going to mention in this film breakdown off of this. I like to use this because they do a really good job with plays with really data in general across the board. Right. But I see the grades. I don't get it. Well, I think it has to do with what you've said before. There is maybe a better understanding now than they're used to be, but they're not really sure of what the responsibilities of the player is. That's the problem with football, with, you know, 22 players out on the field at the same time. You're not really sure what that defensive tackles' responsibilities were on the play that

was called. Yeah. It's not that hard to figure out what their gap is, though. I think in part, here's why I think he got downgraded. I think that they were asking him to, push the pocket from inside without getting with the hit without him being the penetrating guy so he more times than not ended up being the guy that got doubled and they asked him to try to play hurts not as truly a spy but he was the guy to fall back into any of those agap scrambles

and there were three or four of them i just don't think that's the answer to hurts when you have your de-tackle in pain who's getting doubled to try to fight either way as Hurts, juke, and jiving, to then get in on that tackle in the backfield. Right. I didn't think the three or four times where I saw Hertz escape where pain would have been the guy to make their tackle. I don't know who's making that tackle. Aaron Donald? I just don't know who's going to make that play.

Right. I mean, you had them really downgraded. You had them as an A minus and they had them as a D. Uh-huh. Well, yeah, I would say 49.6 is D. Yeah. What do you think the coach has thought about Payne's performance? Really good.

So what do you think they thought when they saw the pro football focus? I don't think they looked at it. I don't think they give a crap. They have people that put all these stats together anyways. Well, so why are they under contract with pro football focus? What's the benefit? Well, pro football focus does this for every team, every player, every one in the league. I know that.

Pro football focus, Kev, has, if you were to go into your iPad, which is now through pro football focus. It filters every single thing. Pass complete wear, past distance, quarterback drop depth. They try to guess at coverage. They're not very good at figuring out exactly what coverage the defenses are playing. You know, run this way, run here. There's 90 filters to every play. So you can filter it a billion different ways with a snap of finger. There's a huge, You don't have to have anybody do that. They don't have to pay them that much to do that. Pay someone, let's say you pay them $250,000 for the year.

I think that's what pro football focus, somewhere around that per team, depending on what they do, no more than a million, to give you all the analytics of what every player is doing, it's worth it. No one cares with them. I mean, there might be some front office people that look at the grades, but no one that's actually scouting a team cares what they graded a player. They just don't. Did you do Settle or Carrigan?

Yeah, I actually did. I thought Settle played much better in this game. Now, he got smoked on that one run that we talked about, but there was a couple times. Like, there's a front side zone play where he's got a great, awesome left-hand post pushing the left guard back four steps, forces a cutback way premature. Jonathan Allen's there to make a tackle for no gain.

I said, I had four or five good plays. I actually thought Settle was a B in this game. He was better. What about Carrigan? That's it. Kerrigan only played 16 plays. One, there was one in particular where Sudfeld came in and faked a little handoff and then it was a boot right, which really wasn't good boot action. Kerrigan pushed him back in the back field.

I thought Kerrigan was a C in this game. You know what I noticed? And I think I mentioned this Monday to you when we were doing the game recap is that on a couple of the big Hertz plays with his legs, the touchdown runs. Casey Twohill was out there. Like they had that number, I think he's number 95. And he's been, I don't know, what was this snap total here? Two. Six snaps.

He had six. Do you play six? Yeah. And Smith Williams had seven. But I noticed that on a couple of the bigger runs by Hertz, Two Hill was out there. Why is he out? The second touchdown, I don't know why he's out there. because it's eight plays into a series

and one of your defensive ends is tired. Okay. The second touchdown run where he went up the middle. Yeah. Two Hill was the defensive right defensive end. Right. And he was on an inside stunt with I think John Allen. Okay.

So Allen's stunting outside over the left tackle. Two Hill's coming inside. And he gets pinned outside the guard instead of really pushing that guard back into the quarterback's lap. So the guard pins him to the outside, and Hertz goes right up the middle inside of him, slips out, breaks left, touchdown. Yeah, I'm watching that right now.

So I think Two Hill really wasn't very good on that end tackle start right there. By the way, on that play, Two Hill and Carrigan, where your defense events, sweat and Young were off the field. Sure. Well, that's two drives in a row where they scored, where they're, what, eight, nine play drives? Right. it's probably why yeah all right uh how to get these guys running some gassers Kevin yeah we got we got to

get them in shape chase young 62 plays not enough apparently apparently not it's got to get 68 all right linebackers right after this word from one of our sponsors linebackers really just going to be bostic and cole holcomb this week anyone else even really play the clique hudson cleek hudson played maybe one play don't think anybody else five snaps for hudson but it was just it was holcomb a Bostic. They played a lot of Moreau. They played a lot of Moreau in Moreland. They played a lot of nickel.

Yeah, the Eagles went a lot more of 11 personnel. Yeah. Bostick, what I thought he did well, when Hertz flushed to really flush, he did a good job pressing him. Instead of really waiting and playing soft, I think they had him a lot of times they played some man-to-man stuff, and they had him as the whole player or the lurker or the lurker or the robber, rover, whatever you want to call that, I think he did a good job immediately attacking downhill it hurts. The fourth down and forward, the balls should have been

caught or should have been thrown better. Bostick did a really good job forcing that throw out early. Earlier in that, a couple of other plays early in that drive, Hertz is scrambling to his right. Bostick immediately has got speed to force him and make a throw on the sideline, make a decision. Did a good job with that. Now, he missed him a couple of times, especially when Hertz scrambled early. Like there was a third and two in the third quarter where. he's definitely just sitting there as a spy and he's just not quick enough to diagnose that it's quarterback draw

so there were a couple of misses there too. I think he's 50-50 in the run game which is a much higher percentage than he was early in this season. There are times where I think he's got too much lateral and not enough block avoid, gets blocked gets moved, but there are times where he's a bit more downhill and more

impactful. Missed three tackles in this ballgame. Missed one on a screen on a college screen out in the third quarter where you're like, you had him, man. Right. He had him. He was better in some of the zone match stuff.

Bostic was a dead flat C. Okay. Cole Holcomb. Yep. Here's your next interesting pro football focus grade, and I know the reason for this, but let's go to the positives for Holcomb. Early in the game, great carry vertical with the back on an outside route that they threw to him. No problem running with the back down the field.

Really good eyes as inside. We just talked about that robber, lurker player, the camera curl interception. Really good job by Holcomb, who ends up putting a hit on Earth right there. Good instincts, good vision, good eyes. I think Holcomb's excellent at what I have labeled sort and shed. The dude can find the ball carrier and get to him. And so he's able to sort out some of these run things, and then he's able to get rid of offensive linemen, shed, get rid of them.

I love his own read play where he just picks up hurts, tries to keep him from getting the first down, just kind of holds him by the waist, like pulling him backwards. but that was hilarious. A couple plays where you out in the flat to the back, making a tackle immediately. A couple negatives from Holcomb. The personal foul early in the game.

If you're just watching tape, that's a heck of a job avoiding an offensive lineman and instinctually finding hurts and going to make a play. He is coming off of just barely getting rid of, the offensive tackle to try to make a diving play on an incredibly mobile quarterback. He didn't hit him that hard in the head either. They're going to call it. Am I going to,

am I going to downgrade that? Are you talking about his unnecessary roughness? Yeah. Oh, you said his holding car. Oh, I sorry. No, no, no. I said the penalties are what down. But that first penalty, am I going to downgrade that?

Yeah, I'm with you on that. I don't know how to. I don't have it in me to do that. Yeah. Here's what I did right, though. You can't downgrade him for that. You just can't. That's not what Bostick did to Dalton, okay?

No. This is... He's rendered himself a runner, and although he's sliding, he is the running back at that point. Of course he is. It's got to be so hard to make that decision. We've seen it flagged all year. I'm not surprised it got flagged, but I would never, in grading Holcomb downgrade him for display. It's just one of those things like we should go outside, me and you, we should have 10 times

and me sliding out of the 10 times, one of us is going to slide five of those times and see how hard it is to make the decision when you're not going to slide. But not me or you. Like we need a dude that's faster than us. I'm not talking about hurts because he's way faster than us. I just need, I mean a guy that's like percentage faster than us that hurts might be than Holcomb. Right. Tommy. Tommy's going out for the count on number one. You know, up or down. I think this is just one of the real difficult things in the game right now, as they've tried to legislate out the big hits.

You know, whether you're a DB on a receiver, or whether you're a linebacker or a DB coming up to hit a sliding quarterback, it's really, really hard. The thing that you can't do, you cannot lead with the crown of your helmet. To me, the hard decision of whether or not to make the tackle or not make the tackle is the complex part of it. The thing that you've got to learn to do is not lead with the crown of your helmet. Which means you cannot leave your feet. Really, you have to turn your body and you've got to lift your head way up into the air to make sure and put it to the side.

And that's where, you know, I think if you see more, you know, if you see more, of that, you're still going to get flagged for hitting a sliding quarterback. Look, we talked about this earlier in the year. You know, you've already seen Mahomes, Russell Wilson does it, where they're faking like they're going to slide. You know, at that point, I think if you fake a slide and even if you're near the sideline and you get hit hard in bounds, you cannot flag that. If a quarterback is going to try to fake like he's slowing down to go into a slide or run out of bounds and then, you know, turns it up field or doesn't slide, that quarterback is now, you know, treated like he's a running back.

I mean, it's no longer a quarterback anymore. Now you can't lead with the crown of your helmet, but you can hit that dude, even if he's going into a slide at that point. You can't have a fake slide and a real slide on a real play. You can't have a fake going out of bounds and a real going out of bounds on the same play. You can't. It can't be refereed. the same way.

No. And first it's going to be one of those guys. It's got to be so hard because even if you're sitting there flat and like square on your toes, good stance, you're going to tackle, which means you need momentum going forward unless you're just going to, anytime a quarterback has it, you just have to absorb and go backwards. As soon as he starts to slide, the natural I feel would be that he's going down so you go down with him, which would take your head downwards.

That's what I wrote down, though. there's a real idea to have a running quarterback who can really slide and throw his head back, almost like Mellow Trembled did on any contact. The head back, slide, flop down. It's worth a personal file a game. To hit him. No. If you have that player, it's almost a guaranteed personal file in every single game. So how would you coach it defensively?

I think it depends on the situation. okay if it's a third down and I have to limit him I'm taking the foul I'm just going to take it I'm going to say we have to try to get him down if it's a first or second down I'm just going to absorb contact I'm going to let him run into me I'm going to absorb contact and I'm going to just flop I don't know how else to do it I'll tell you what in a game against a really good quarterback If he's going to flirt with that coming up in the middle of the field, I'm going to hit him. Not with the crown of the helmet, but I'm going to coach, you are going to hit that guy unless he goes into the slide really early. But if it's bang, bang, I don't want you backing off at the last second. I want you laying the wood to him. Okay, period. We'll take the 15 yards once.

Maybe we knock him out of the game. But more importantly, he's going to be thinking about getting down a lot earlier. I don't want the Russell Wilson, Jalen Hertz, Patrick Mahomes, you know, fooling around with the rules, using them to their benefit, coming up the field and going into a slide at the very last second to try to draw a 15-yard penalty. Because if that happens, they're going to take the hit. Are you paying my fine? Yes. I'm paying your fine. Okay.

I'm pulling a Greg Williams. Well, I'm not saying that you have to suggest we're trying to hurt a player. I didn't say... But you're all... But I like your suggestion is basically this. I want to intimidate. I want to intimidate. I want...

I definitely want... Yes. Don't do it again. I want some sort of feeling of... I want it deterred. I want the defendant... I want the quarterback to think twice the next time he comes in. I want him getting down a lot earlier.

Slide earlier. You're going to have to slide much earlier. Because if you fool around with trying to... get a couple of extra yards and trying to draw the 15-yarder. I'm going to give up the 15, but you're going to take a massive shot. It's going to be a clean shot. You know, it's not going to be crowned on my helmet, but you are going to take a big shot. Let's see him do it again after that.

You know, there are certain quarterbacks you know that are going to get down. They're not going to fool around with it. You know, we don't have to worry about Brady. You do have to worry about Rogers if you get to that. second weekend. We got him in the second weekend. But, you know, Kurt Cousins, you don't have to worry about if he takes off. He's going to slide. He's going to slide early. In fact, if it's third and six, he's going to slide at four yards and say, can we go for it on fourth down? So I just don't want, I just don't want the 15-yard penalty to come without some sort of message sent. That would be,

That would be the way I'd coach it. Yeah, I completely understand the way you'd coach it. It's just not easy to send a message to Jalen Hertz to just say, like, guys, we're going to get a clean hit on him. It's not that easy. I know it. I know it isn't. He's really slick.

Yeah, he is. He's really elusive. Right. So you can't just say, go blow him up. That'll work. Because then you're going to miss. I can't. This is the part of football.

that you and I've had so many conversations about this over the years. I love football. I love it. But part of why I've always loved it is I love the physicality of football. I love the violence of football. I love great defenses. I love big hits. And they've legislated that stuff.

And they've attempted to legislate that stuff out of the game. And now, to your point, offenses are using these rules to their advantage. And they're literally, you know, getting one to two. of these calls a game sometimes and baiting defenses into it. So I'm not taking 30 yards worth of penalties in the game without laying a big time hit. And I know it's harder to do on a guy like Hertz. But the first one, it's not going to be dirty. It's not going to be with the crown of the helmet. But this guy's going to feel it even if he goes into a slide early. He's going to feel it. And you're not talking about little kids here. We're talking about that.

NFL players. All right. Holcomb. So here's the thing with Holcomb, then he has the holding penalty, which is holding. It is holding. Good. I'm glad you admitted that. He loses late.

You told me the other day you didn't like the call. I said, I thought he mugged him. On the television copy, to me, to me on the television copy, it looked like he let go at five yards. It was probably seven. Okay. But keep in mind,

he loses late. you go watch it again they're by him urts ends up by him holding didn't really help him here so he's got two penalties in this ballgame hokom does i had him without penalties at a b plus you look at this pro football focus thing they graded holcomb at a 41.1

is that an f i think that's still in the d range Well, they obviously emphasized and put great weight on the two penalties. On the penalties. He had six tackles. He had zero missed tackles. He was really consistent as a tackler. He was good in coverage. He was good at the line of scrimmage.

He's not, he's a B plus. He's a B. Okay. DBs. A couple things with the DBs. We'll get you on out of here. So you can go do your things. You've got things to do too.

I got things to do. Kendall for, couple of plays. One, there was a Jalen Rager play early in the game that ended up incomplete. Right. Down the field. Yeah. Bad ball for the quarterback that throws great ball. Accurate.

This is a touchdown if he throws a good ball. They run a keeper, the keeper game where Hertz goes out to the right. Big Sandoff left goes out to the right. Rager runs a corner post. So he goes vertical, then takes a few steps to the corner and then post. It's a good job based on the leverage by Riga running this route. He's open. Fuller takes the bait.

So does Reeves, the single high safety. Reeves turns and starts to run to the corner. Rigger on a good ball is walking into the end zone for a sixer. No question. Walking in. It's a bad ball. Fuller ends up getting back into it. It still probably should have been caught.

but way under thrown ball. He is falling for a double move in every single game. Yeah, you've said that before. He is going to get attacked with double moves by Tampa Bay. They're going to run double moves on him. He cannot fall for it. You know, gave up a few receptions, one from off coverage, where it's a pretty easy reception,

had a dumb DPI. Why? He's third and ten against Arthega Whiteside or whoever it is out there. It is Arthagah Whiteside. And you're like, what are we doing here? We can't cover our Thiga White Side? I think Arthagena White Side is actually talented. Yeah, I do too. He actually is pretty good inside too on a couple plays.

But look, and even to the extent it is, it's a 50-50 call. It is DPI, but 50-50 that it gets called. I totally agree with you on that. I think it was really close. It's not the worst. It's not the worst of all time. He got a little too handsy right at the last second. The ball probably would have been caught.

Not in bounds, do you think? Yes, I think so. Well, he did catch it. He just caught it out of bounds. But you think the DPI forced him out of bounds? I can't remember the play. Yeah, yeah, the DPI. The DPI, it affected the play.

Yeah, I agree. But I think it's also a 50-50 call. I don't think that they called Darius Lay on that play. It's the NFL. So from off coverage too soft on a short out or I guess it's not a short it's a button hook, but it works as a short out from outside. The White said slipped and fell on that play. It should have been a nine-yard completion, but he's off at slow transition.

He's not great from off coverage. Did make some good tackles. Shed block make a tackle on the outside. Big play on a third and ten right before the half. It was actually the play after he was slow transition. and Ertz ran a 9-yard-out route or a 10-yard-out route. It would have been short of the first down, but did a good job getting that ball out of Ertz's hand on a third and 10,

where Washington gets the ball back and goes and scores. So that was a big play by Fuller in that game. But yeah, he's got to stop taking the bait on some of these double moves. And he could be better in transition. I was thinking about him like, dude, I'm going to play soft two. I could cover two trap against Tampa. I'm going to encourage them to take that double move shot. I'm going to let him early in this game.

you see a double move, jump it like you got beat, but you're actually a trap corner and then let the safety play over the top, like hold the safety a little bit. There's a lot that goes into that. I had a lot to think about this morning at 5 o'clock. You think, you think Ariens and Leftwich are going to really attack Fuller with double moves with their receivers. I would. Yeah. Ronald Darby, Fuller was a C minus. Ronald Darby, you don't attack Darby with double moves. He is a double move expert right now. He is great at sensing the double move. really good at running with guys flipping his hips transitioning

running with guys vertical carrying things pretty good cover corner at this point a couple negatives watch the double pass to Greg Ward that he ends up throwing on the sideline to Folgram where is he going he's running 15 yards downfield on that double pass and then my God

the one that Ward through Ward through to Folgram on the sideline Folgram my God if you watch the play Folgum catches it on the sideline and he's like, I'm just going to take a step out here. There's no one within 10 yards of him in any direction. Why did he do that? No idea.

That would have been another 20 yards, am I right? It would have been more. I don't know how many more. Ten, for sure. Weird. Got beat on a scramble drill where the receiver decides to plant and run back down the sideline and kind of comeback. Just opens his hips and bails a little too.

early. That was on the second scoring drive. Transition to plaster receivers again on a scramble. A couple of scrambled drills with the receivers coming back, got beat on them. It was really good down on the goal line and the goal to go situation. A couple lockdown coverages. I thought Ronald Darby was a C plus. Okay. Jimmy Morland. I thought Darby would have been better than that. I like Darby a lot. I think he's played very well. It's just another one of those things. I would grade Darby for the year as a B corner. Well, you weren't sure. you were going to get that, you know? No. I think I think B with an arrow up right now with the way he's playing in this

defense. I think he's been a really nice sign, really good player, really helpful. I trust him. That's all say that. I trust him against anybody. Okay. What about Morlin and Moreau? Moreau got 35 snaps in this game the most he's had since, I don't know, very early in the season. Yeah, he for sure did. The positives, there are times when Moreland's good pressing up tight at the line of scrimmage. They did this a lot, especially early in the game. They pressed, they said, we're going to take them off timing. We'll try to stop Hertz from running.

And I thought a couple times early in this game, Moreland, was actually pretty good. Missed a tackle on the Greg Ward double pass. I had a chance to tackle him in the backfield. Ward just juked him. And the crazy thing was, is Bostick is clearly inside a ward. All Moreland's got to do is keep contained and corral in between those two. And that's not a completion. Right.

It's a tackle for loss. I miss that tackle. There's an interesting play in zone coverage. There's still some underneath feel from zone coverage, and I'm going to give you one play. Second quarter of the game, they end up throwing a hitch outside to the running back. There's a three-man set to the left.

The running back's the widest. They're playing a cover three with a five-man pressure, so 33B, 3B, 3-B, 3 blitz. Moreland is over the number two receiver, the middle of the three. It's Arthaga Whiteside, who runs a vertical route inside go right over Morland. And Jimmy is really responsible for the flat. Jimmy gets caught up and hemmed up and carries way too deep in the flat's thrown. It's an easy nine-yard gain.

Fuller's late to transition and come up and tackle. But Fuller's got to play that deep seam ball. That's a scene by Arthagia-Whiteside that ran right through Morland, acted like a pick, ends up being Fuller's guy. Morland's got to react to the flat quicker. Those are just, I mean, that's one play, but it starts to define understanding responsibilities as an underneath player. Run into Arthaga White Side, press him, but get to the flat quicker.

Can't give that up. It's way too easy. Man, and he got smoked on two inside digs by Arthega Whiteside. Neither one were thrown. One was a scramble, and one, one, one. was a Nick Ful's interception to Reeves. But if you watch that Reeves interception, why did he not throw the ball in the middle of the field,

I'd take it white side? More than was a C-minus in this game. Speaking of Reeves and that interception, and it'll transition right to it. Well, what a fucking idiot quarterback play that was. Are you going to Reeves before you give me Moreau? Yeah, I'm going to go to Reeves. I'll do Moreau.

Merrill. Merle didn't play it. Okay, here's Moreau. Okay, Moreau. I actually played more than he'd play. in a long time. That's why he, is there an echo? A couple good plays.

Had a pass break up on the sideline, was fairly consistent coverage. I mean, once I thought a little bit too caught up in a run action, he's a flat player in a cover three. Again, like Moreau, he's a flat player in a cover three. It's a run action. He ends up jamming Arthega Whiteside inside, and they throw the flat outside to over the top of his head at the corner. They throw the corner route in front of Darby on a run action.

But he gets spun around in there. You're like, dude, you do not have to press the inside receiver. the way into the middle of the field is you're the flat player. Punch him with your hand, but turn him free at that point. He's not going to attack your zone. He's not going to attack the player behind you in your zone. He's running across the field. But more than that, I mean, pretty consistent.

I thought Moreau is actually a B plus in this game. All right. Before you get to the safeties, I want to talk about real quickly, my bookie.orgie.org. Use my promo code, Kevin, D.C. They'll match your deposit up to halfway up to $1,000. You deposit a thousand bucks. They'll give you an extra $500 to play with. You want a place that's safe before we get to the safeties.

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They'll match your deposit up to half of your deposits. So 500 bucks extra 250, you know, 800 bucks extra 400. If you just open the account with 50 bucks, you'll get an extra $25 to play with. MyBooky.ag, use my promo code, Kevin D.C. All right, finish it up with the safeties. Reeves, start with the interception play just because I was on it. Yeah. You come in and you definitely practice as a quarterback.

And you have a three-man combination. two goes on the outside and a 15, 12 to 15 yard in on the inside. And you decide, I'm going to throw the go ball. I got man-to-man coverage on the outsides. And you take the snap and then you stare at the right side of the field. And then you throw to the right side of the field. You're begging the safety to pick that ball. He never looked him off.

Yeah, well. I'm not, hey, am I saying that Reeves shouldn't went and picked it? No, he does exactly what he should do. But golly, how bad is that? I mean, I can't even, I couldn't watch the Sudfeld stuff. I watched Telly dropped a snap and I was like, I'm done with this. I mean, well, I mean, this is what they knew old Nate would do. And it's too bad because Nate's such a great guy.

He's, it's so bad. It's really too bad. I mean, just look to the right and throw to the left. That's why I should have played quarterback. Hold on for a second. Hey, Doug, Doug, it's too close. It's 17-14. What in the hell are you doing down there?

What in the hell are you doing? This is going to be the difference between number six, and we can trade that along with a couple of other things, maybe to get fields or Lance or even Wilson. And what are you doing here? Get Sudfeld in the game and tell him on his first throw to stare it down. Now get that done now. I mean, he never even looks.

He just threw it right to read. Listen, I want to make a decision on who our quarterback is. You know, we still have Wentz under contract, and we have Jalen Hertz. And it could be Sudfeld. He, the more I think about it, the more you're like, he knew early on if this game became, if he said, if he said to anybody in that broadcast meeting, I want to get Subfield in, he had to have known. He didn't want to put Nate in that bad of a spot, but he had to be. have known if this game's anywhere close I can I can put a little marker out there that said I was going to do this anyway but he knew if the game was going to be close he'd

lose the game that way yeah I'm looking for something because I want to I want I want to share this with you because I thought it was such a really good tweet from Kurt Warner about this just give me two seconds because I definitely want okay here is. Kurt Warner tweeted out yesterday. How does Nate Sudfeld feel when another coach, and he's talking about Joe Judge, and Joe Judge's rant yesterday, how does Nate Sudfeld feel when another coach says that putting him in equals disrespecting the game? Did he not put in 17 weeks of work following all protocols busted his butt like everyone else, yet God forbid he gets a chance to play in a meaningless game? Just so easy to see one side of it.

I thought that was really, I think Joe Judge should just shut the hell up. This is a guy whose team was six and ten. He won six games, Joe. And at the end of that Dallas game, I mean, Wayne Galman nearly fumbled it away. I mean, he's got the ball between his legs. What a disaster. And by the way, so appropriate the way the division ended for those two teams. But really, I mean, the whole world.

And this is why your point about Doug Peterson and Nate Sudfeld being respected and well-liked, that they wouldn't have done this to him. It had to be somebody else, you know, because the whole world looked at it and said, Nate Sudfeld equals disrespecting the game's integrity. I mean, that's an awful thing to get attached to. And Joe Judge, you know, said it, but everybody was thinking it.

You know, everybody, it was the number one conversation on Monday and even yesterday. Like the Philadelphia Eagle players really are pissed off. They did not want this. They did not like it at all. There's more context to this, though. I mean, you're at the 45-yard line going for it on a fourth and seven when you could tie the game with a field goal and you take a delay of game. You don't challenge a Gibson fumble that Washington didn't have to hurry up to run the next play to.

There's other things that go into this game. You don't kick a field goal to tie the game in a situation where you should have tied the game and go for it on a fourth and four. Right. The thing that I was most frustrated about when we were going off on Collinsworth and Michaels the other day, the thing that really struck me, I mean, all of the things we listed, I'm not going to do that conversation again. But the fourth and seven that you just mentioned on the delay a game,

they were telling, it was story time with, you know, Uncle Al and cousin Chris. Like, they totally miss the significance of this. It's fourth down and seven at the Washington 35. This is a coach that preys on analytics and fourth down analytics. And you're going to tell me at the 35-yard line, first of all, you can't kick a field goal with a guy that definitely has a leg on a night with no wind. But you're telling me that this coach, who goes for everything, is going to take a delay a game penalty at the other team's 35-yard line and fourth and seven? you don't think this is part of the beginning of the tank job? Because this was before Sudfeld came in.

And he's already starting to recognize. Oh, my God, it's 1714. We've got to lose this game. I mean, I could kick a field goal here. It'd be a 53-yarder to tie it, but I certainly could go for it. And they'd take a delay a game penalty. And the two announcers in the booth, it totally sailed over their head that that had just happened. Anyway, and then they punted it.

Well, you know what you can't do when you pun it? Actually, not true with Stephen Sims on the other end, but you typically can't score when you pun it. So let's do that. Yeah. Okay. All right. Let's wrap it up.

Reeves. Reeves. I thought Reeves was really good over the top throughout most of the day. I mentioned the corner post on the boot that he ends up taking the bait with Rager to the corner. That's a tough play. That is. I mean, it's a great play call. It's a really cool play the way it played out.

And it was perfect for the coverage that Washington had. But, you know, that was one of the bad ones. He had a miss tackle on Hertz. On the first touchdown run, we had an opportunity to get him down. But, you know, consistent angles coming down to make tackles from the free safety position. I thought really good feel, good transition and hips on breaking on balls, sideline to sideline, showed some really nice speed. I thought showed some really good awareness. of where he was, came down and had a couple

safety blitzes where he was impactful, timing those things up, seemed to get a good feel for the game over the last couple weeks. Reeves wasn't a minus, Kev. It's awesome. Reeves played really well in this ballgame. All right, Cam Curl to finish it up. And then Cam Curl is my last

pro football focus, weird grade, whatever you want to do. But, look, I thought the interception, big time press on Earths. He disrupts the timing of the the operation. He's great, great with his hands, great with his feet. That's a big play in the game by camera curl, three picks in three weeks. Really natural when run fits, knows when to avoid,

knows how to maintain gap leverage. He knows how to make tackles. He's a consistent tackler. I thought really good. Um, the tackle on the goal to go on the first or second and five is fitting in there, sorting things out. Pretty awesome. A good man to man coverage on the goal to go on Ertz. Like, I'm trusting Curl more and more to be man-to-man kind of guy. Ertz is not Ertz right now. Yeah. That was hard for me to watch because I think Ertz is so savvy and it's just he's a step slow.

Hopefully he's going to be better. I like Ertz. So, I mean, I'm hoping it's not the end of, or the start of the end for Zach Ertz. But I think Cam Carole plays with really good eye discipline. I think he sees things really well. I think he understands what's coming at him. Got the double, the second double pass, he does a great job running with, I think they were trying to throw it to Richard Rogers and he covers that up. So I thought Cam and curl was pretty good.

The negatives on curl, he has the holding downfield on Ertz that they called. That's, then he asked for a push off after the hole. He's holding him at 13 yards and urch pushes off and still wins again. Like, that's, you can't keep grabbing him after five yards. Just can't. Right. It's really not that hard. If you grab him at all after five yards, in theory, it's a whole bean.

And then the only other play that I think he could have made in this game, they threw the ball down the middle of the field to Arthago-Whiteside. That was a third down and seven, something like that on that touchdown drive. They're in a quarter's coverage. It's a three-man route concept, which, again, if you want to talk about throwing the game, you're going to lock up seven on all these third downs for a quarterback who can really run and run three men combinations. That's not normal Philly.

So inside Arthaga White's just running a deep crossing route and outside you have two seams. Cam McRow is the quarter safety to the side. He's playing the middle quarter of the field to the Arthega Whiteside play. It should have just, it should have been a pick. I think of whites, I didn't do anything to break him off. The ball wasn't incredible. Curl waited on it just a step long. I don't know why.

I think he should have picked that ball. I think it should have been two interception game for him. But for me, I graded camera curl as a B. And PFF? PFF graded him as a 52.7. Hmm. My PFF grade, the way they do things, a B would have been right around a 70.

Why is he 20 points low for PFF? Holding penalty. Thought he was in on tackles. Thought he was consistent with a scrimmage. Thought he was good throughout this game. I just didn't see it, you know? You know, like three guys on this defense that I think were 20 points low for the PFF score, if not more. I don't get it.

It doesn't matter. The point is I know I feel really consistent with how I'm grading these guys. Just take anything that you see if so-and-so's great. Grated out at PFF. Just take it with a grain of salt. Sometimes they're right. Sometimes they're pretty good. Other times, they're not.

And that's the film breakdown for the day. And I got about two minutes for you because I got to talk to Kine. Okay. So two things. Number one, I think the Chase Young being off sides on the camcourl first interception, which we talked about the other day, it's probably not worth a flag. It was really close, though. But more importantly, you know, on the all 22, on the first play of the second,

half on the Gibson run. There is zero chance that that isn't a play that you've got to give me three different angles on if I'm NBC. Because in the all 22 end zone view, I think he fumbles the football. I think it's out. It's very hard to tell. But it is certainly a very close play. If he is down, he is barely down. The ball is knocked out from a detackle coming from behind the line a scrimmage, the right side as he's falling down and it ends up in 42's hands, three yards back from where Gibson lands, five yards back, two to three yards back from where he lands. I think, look, that's one of those things where if you're trying not to win the game,

you don't challenge it. You know, I guarantee you somebody in the Philadelphia coaching room said, hey, Doug, that's a fumble. That is worth a challenge. Let's challenge it. And he said, no, no, no, we can't do that. That would give us a really good field position. He's down.

He's down. He's down. The fact that NBC did not show you multiple views of that play, it just shows you. I just watched it again. He's down. From the end zone's down? Yeah, he's down. How do you see it?

Did you watch it in slow-mo? Yeah, slow-mo zoomed in. Yeah, slow-mo zoomed in. Yeah, slow-mo's-d-old. It's, his knees are down. There's no way I can time this up to say that he's not down. But how do you not challenge it? I don't know.

How do you not give me? Look, I'm not saying that it is a fumble. I'm just saying it's real. Plus, if you're trying to throw the game, you may as well burn a time out. Right. It is really close. Really close play. I think he's down.

I don't know if he is or isn't. I don't think that on this all 22, you can tell you definitely cannot tell definitively he is down. That ball is ripped as he's falling to the ground. You cannot see the knees in either one of these two things. but he's upright enough where the knees may not be down. All right. Coolie's not with me tomorrow. He will be with me Friday.

We will preview the first playoff game for this franchise in five years. Have a great day. Everybody, have a great day. See you.