The Kevin Sheehan Show - Wildcard Position By Monday Night

Episode Date: November 24, 2021

Kevin opened with an explanation of how Washington can move into the NFC's Wildcard 7-seed by the end of Monday night. Barry Svrluga/Washington Post joined the show to talk about many things including his column about Terry McLaurin being the best Washington receiver in 30 years. Kevin finished up with two Thanksgiving Day "Smell Test" picks and the 1991 Washington Redskins' undefeated season ending 30 years ago today.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Chean Show. Here's Kevin. Barry's Verluga from the Washington Post will be on the show today. Barry's going to be on the show because he wrote a column this morning that made the case that Terry McLorn is the best receiver this franchise has had in 30 years

since it had Art Monk and Gary Clark. He'll be on with us. By the way, speaking of 30 years ago, we will do a 1991 look back to 30 years ago today when Washington lost for the first time in their 1991 Super Bowl season. Barry's on the show today because he wrote a really good column, which I will wait until I talk to Barry to let you know whether or not I agree with Barry's promise about Terry McLaren so far. Clinton Portis was scheduled to be on the show today. He's got some travel issues trying to get where he's headed for Thanksgiving. and he promised that he would be available to do the show on Friday.

For those of you that have asked about Cooley, who hasn't been on the show in like two weeks, his high school football season did end in the first round of the playoffs. I think they lost 14 to 10. And I talked to him, you know, and I talk to him all the time. Bottom line is he's going to come on. He will be on, you know, who knows, maybe Friday as well. He's just not watching football that much. He's not paying attention to our team.

paying attention to much of anything in the league. But that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy the conversations with him and the discussion. But he'll be on soon. And I appreciate all of you who have been asking about him. And so does he. I wanted to start the show with this. Do you know that Washington is in position by the late hours of Monday night to be in the seven spot in the NFC

playoff standings. They are literally less than a week away from being in the playoffs, I mean, in terms of the current standings. And it's not that much of a long shot for that to happen. Now, I know I promised no playoff scenarios because I don't think they're a very good team. But two wins in a row have put them in a position in the NFC that is more than just in the conversation.

Again, it's not that far of a reach where they could be in the postseason as the seventh team, the third wildcard team, by the end of Monday night. Let me walk you through it. First of all, as it relates to Washington's game against Seattle, Washington is now favored. They opened up, curiously, as a two-and-a-half-point underdog.

I didn't think that that was curious a week ago, but after Seattle put on the performance they did, against the Cardinals, and Washington beat Carolina, I actually thought then, this is a pick-um or Washington's like a one or a two-point favorite in the Monday night game. Well, they opened it plus two-and-a-half, a two-and-a-half point underdog. And I predicted on Monday that this line would move in Washington's direction, and it has. They are now a one-point favorite. They're a one-point favorite because sharp-betters are betting Washington. Why are they betting Washington? Well, some of it has to do with Washington, but more of it has to do with Seattle. Seattle has lost five of its last six games. They've lost two in a row to the Packers and the Cardinals, the Cardinals without Kyler Murray or DeAndre Hopkins or Chase Edmonds, where they've managed in the last two games to be shut out by the Packers and to score only 13 points against the Cardinals.

They're in free fall. We are probably heading towards the end of the Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson era. in Seattle. It's been a hell of a run for these guys in Seattle going back to 2012. But it looks like it's heading towards an end, or at least that's the perception of the odds makers. They think Seattle is about to pack it in. I don't know if that's true or not. The NFL's impossible to figure out. We talk about this all the time. Just when you least expect it, expect it. And Washington's not a six-point favorite. They're a one-point favorite right now. might still keep climbing, but this is a winnable game on Monday night. They're now favored to

win the game. The Thanksgiving Day game tomorrow night between the Saints and the Bills, the Saints have half of their team out due to injury. Buffalo is now a six-point favorite, despite Buffalo playing pretty poorly recently, you know, getting blown out by the Colts two weeks ago losing to Jacksonville. The Bills are six-point favorites tomorrow night in the Superdome. If they win that game, the Saints are five and seven. six. That would be if Washington wins the game, Washington is five and six. The Panthers are also right now five and six. They haven't had their by week yet. They play the dolphins where they are just one and a half point favorites in Miami, a dolphin's team that's played really well recently. The dolphins beat the Jets last week. I understand that. But remember, they beat the Ravens in that Thursday night game. They've won three in a row. They're playing pretty well, and they are excellent. defensively. Excellent defensively. Going to be a tough afternoon for Cam and the Carolina offense. It's in Miami. What if Carolina loses that game? Well, they would drop to five and seven.

It's a winnable game for Miami and a loseable game for Carolina. The Eagles are sitting there at five and six. They haven't had their byweek either. They're playing in New York in the Meadowlands against the Giants, they fired Jason Garrett. Boy, I mean, that, we talked about that game, I think, on the podcast yesterday. That was one of the worst offensive performances by any team I've seen all year and just a dreadful performance by Daniel Jones. Like one of those definitive games where if you're a giant fan, you're like, nope, not him, it's not Daniel Jones. And if you watch what they did offensively, nope, it can't be Jason Garrett anymore. And they fire. The Giants, by the way, just as an aside, since firing Coughlin, you've had the bad

haircut dude, McAdoo, you had Shermer, and you've got Joe Judge. That franchise from a football standpoint is almost and maybe even worse than Washington. Now, organizationally, they're better, even though we can't stand the Maras. But football-wise, my God, Tom Coffman. Tom Coughlin was a hell of a football coach. Anyway, could the Giants rise up as three and a half point home dogs and beat the Eagles? It's possible. Keep the Eagles from getting to 500? Anything's possible.

I can tell you the Giants will probably be a smell test pick. The whole world's on Philadelphia laying three and a half. I like the Eagles. I think they're a good team right now. I really do. But if the Eagles lost, they would fall to five and seven. Atlanta is sitting there with the same record as Washington. They play Jacksonville on the road.

That game's a pick-em. It's a pick-em. Even if they do win to get to five and six, Washington would be ahead of them because of conference record. Then you get the Minnesota-San Francisco matchup between two five-and-five teams. So one of them is going to end up being the six-seed, behind, say, the Rams as the five seed by Monday night. And then the loser will drop to five and six.

And either one of the teams that loses it doesn't matter, either one of those two teams will have a worse record in the conference than Washington's, which means Washington with a win would be ahead of them in the standings on tiebreaker procedures. So I just gave you the Saints losing, the Panthers losing, the Eagles potentially losing. That would be a bit of an upset. Out of all of them, that seems the least likely,

but it sort of fits the contrarian handicapping theory. Atlanta losing, and then it doesn't matter who loses between Minnesota and San Francisco. If those things happen in Washington beat Seattle, the playoff picture will be on Monday night, the four division leaders, Cowboys, Packers, Buccaneers, Cardinals. The five seed would be the Rams. The sixth seed would be the winner of the Minnesota-San Francisco game. And the seventh seed would be Washington based on winning tiebreaker scenarios against the other five and six teams. There you go. There's your playoff scenario talk here heading into week 12 of the

NFL. By the way, if you're looking ahead to Washington games and wondering, whether or not, if you knew this, you may not have known this anyway. Washington, Philadelphia, the weekend of the 18th and 19th of December, was a possibility to get moved to a Saturday game. This happened with them a couple of years ago when they played Tennessee on a Saturday. The NFL leaves that open until later in the season like yesterday to decide on which games they want moved to Saturday national TV games on December 18th. Washington did not get moved. So their game with Philadelphia is Sunday, December 19th at 1 p.m. This is the game in Philadelphia against the Eagles. The two games that got moved are the Raiders and Browns, and then the night game, the prime time game, is Colts Patriots, which led me to realizing something that I did not realize until early this morning.

Did you know that the Patriots are in first place in the AFC East? They're in first place in the AFC East. Really quite remarkable what the Patriots have done. They play the Titans this week, and they are six and a half point favorites in Foxborough over Tennessee after winning five games in a row by an average of 35 to 10. Somebody asked me, well, my producer asked me, this morning. I think we talked about it maybe with Scott too on the podcast two days ago.

Who are the best teams in the league? Well, right now in the AFC, that point spread over Tennessee is telling you that New England is certainly in the conversation as the best team in the AFC. I think that Kansas City's back to being the favorite perhaps along with, you know, Kansas City probably the favorite. I haven't looked at it. I can check in on my bookie right now in terms of AFC championship odds. I'm going to guess after last weekend that Kansas City is now the favorite if Buffalo still isn't. But Buffalo is not even in first place. Yeah, Kansas City right now is the favorite in the AFC at plus 275 to go to the Super Bowl.

Buffalo is second at plus 330. The Ravens are at plus 480, and then the Patriots are the fourth pick right now at plus 500. I think the chargers are dangerous. As long as I'm here, what about the NFC, the NFC championship odds? Because it's hard to pick who's the best team in the NFC. Right now, the Bucks are the favorite. The Rams and Cardinals are essentially tied for the second favorite. Then it's Green Bay, Dallas, San Francisco, Minnesota, in that order for the NFC championship.

So there you go. By the way, other Washington football team discussion real quickly, DeAndre Carter is the leading boat getter for the return specialist in the Pro Bowl. John Allen is third among defensive tackles behind Aaron Donald and Jeffrey Simmons. Now, Jeffrey Simmons is an AFC player. So as of now, John Allen and DeAndre Carter would be your pro bowlers. Actually, one more. Cameron Cheeseman, their long snap.

is also near the top of vote getters for long snappers. Go figure. I had no idea. Does Washington have any other possibilities? Well, yeah, Terry McClorn, for sure. But that would probably be it. I guess Brandon Sheriff, even with the Miss Games, is going to be in the conversation.

But that would probably be it. Tressway. There you go. Did we just nail it? Tressway, D'Andre Carter, Cameron Cheesman, and then John Allen's a lock to be a pro bowler. I don't think anybody else defensively, Duran Payne or Matt Ionitis are going to have a shot at the Pro Bowl. Obviously, neither one of the two defensive ends are going to be in the Pro Bowl. Nobody at linebacker, nobody in the secondary.

You go to offense, and it's McLaurin, and it is maybe just basically, on reputation, Brandon Sheriff, that would probably be the list of potential pro bowlers off of their team, unless, of course, number four lights it up over the final seven games. And that's the last thing I want to mention here in the opening segment before we get to Barry's Verluga. Tommy and I spent a lot of time talking about Taylor Heineke yesterday, and you can go back and listen to a lot of it, and we discussed some of the things that Ron Rivera said about Taylor Heineke. I'm going to talk to Barry's Veruga about Taylor Heineke. well. I want to emphasize one point that we brought up yesterday that I just have thought more about.

And I think it's really important because, first of all, Rivera has essentially said here this week, and in recent weeks, he doesn't have to have an answer on this. They're exploring everything. They're going to explore all the quarterbacks in the draft. They're going to explore all the quarterbacks in free agency. They're going to explore what they have. And they get seven more games this year, you know, to, you know, to, you know, evaluate Taylor Heineke. And that's really the evaluation now, right? It's not Kyle Allen anymore. It's Taylor Heineke. I guess we could be back two weeks from now if they play poorly and they're then officially at four and eight kind of done. Maybe the Kyle Allen conversation surfaces. I mean, Rivera implied to me on the show in his weekly appearance two weeks ago that he was intrigued

by the possibility of playing Kyle Allen. So I think before that ten, Tampa game, it was in play that Kyle Allen was going to get some opportunities. But I think after the last two weeks, that ship for the time being has sailed. And it's really about Taylor Heinecke and evaluating Taylor Heineckee while evaluating all the college quarterbacks, while evaluating all of the veteran quarterbacks that may or may not be available. I mentioned this yesterday more in passing, but I think it's really important. It's very possible that Washington will evaluate other quarterbacks and aim higher than Taylor Heineke and believe internally that he's not totally the answer or they're not sure, but not be able to do anything about it.

You know, you can be aggressive and not land guys. In free agency, Matt Ryan, if Atlanta cuts him, and there may be a compelling reason for them to do so because of a huge, you know, cap savings if they were to cut him after the 2021 season. I personally think Matt Ryan's still playing at a pretty high level. No Calvin Ridley and no Cordarell Patterson, I think in recent weeks has really hurt. But I think Matt Ryan can still play. You heard what Jay Gruden said about Matt Ryan when he was on with me a week ago Saturday. Matt Ryan, he said, absolutely Matt Ryan. I think a lot of people feel that way about Matt Ryan in the sport, you know, offensive guys. They know he can play

even though he's on the verge of turning 38 years old. But Matt Ryan, he's. is a free agent more likely than not, it didn't come in here. The free agent possibilities really are guys like Teddy Bridgewater, Tyrod Taylor, Mitch Trubisky, Marcus Marriota, and

then maybe, you know, a guy like James Winston. I don't know what's going to happen to him. Obviously he was injured. He's done for the year. I guess somebody like Cam Newton could all the sudden be available. So there's not going to be a lot of places to turn for an obvious replacement for Heineke.

If Heineke plays well enough, I'm talking about, you know, if he plays just well enough for this debate among all of us, and maybe a debate internally among them, continues on him. You sign a Mitch Trubisky in the off-season, I think that's a training camp competition. May the best man win between Trubisky. and Taylor Heineke. It wasn't last summer because Taylor Heineke, it only played one game. Now he's going to play 16 and a half games. And if he plays more games like he played on Sunday and you go the free agent route,

well, it's more of a competition. You have not come up with an answer to replace Taylor Heineke or to move on from him being a possibility of being your quarterback next year. I'm talking about next year now. The trade guys, you know, the Watson's, the Roger. the Wilson's, they've all made it clear. They're not coming here. So then you have the draft where somebody who gets drafted doesn't have a choice whether or not they're coming here. And by all accounts, if you believe the people who do this for a living, this is not an

impressive quarterback draft. So what will their evaluations be of the quarterbacks? Will they fall in love with Kenny Pickett or Matt Corral or Malik Willis or Carson Strong? And we'll Will they draft the quarterback of their future? And then you have a training camp battle to see if the young guy's ready to go or not. I'm driving towards this. Taylor Heineke, by default, might be back with a chance to start in 2022. And it may not mean that they believe he is truly the quarterback of the future. It might mean he's the best solution if we can put and keep improving around,

him and give us a chance to be competitive in games and win more than we lose. Maybe not win Super Bowls or contend for Super Bowls, as Ron Rivera said in that quote, you know, he's not a Hall of Famer. You know, they don't see that in them. But if you really start contemplating the solutions when the season ends, they may be limited. You can evaluate until your heart's content. You can aim higher and believe that you have to.

to aim higher doesn't mean that you're going to you're going to land the guy. They couldn't land Stafford. They couldn't land, you know, anybody else that they may have been thinking about. They didn't, you know, decide to move on Trabisky before the trade deadline. They didn't trade up in the draft to take Justin Fields. So, there you go. Barry's Verluga, when we come back right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Barry's Verluga is joining us on the podcast.

Barry to come on, not just because of the column that he just wrote, which I mentioned in the open of the podcast today, but because I love talking to Barry about lots of different things. And by the way, I was thinking about you because you and I, I think when it comes to sports have real similar interests, you know, in terms of our passions when it comes to sports, college basketball, obviously being one of them. Now, I think you really love baseball. And I love baseball, too, not to the level that you do. But, but, but. Where does this week, this holiday week rank for you in terms of sports weeks or weekends of the year? I mean, I think it's behind some of the early October big-time football when, you know, I'll reveal myself with the baseball playoffs going. I like that college hoop is kind of hitting its stride here, but to me that doesn't really happen until those great conference games are going. and you'll get the odd matchup, you know, like you had last night. And there are some prominent college hoop games that I'd get really, really into. But I'll take that mesh of the baseball playoffs and the early part of football season. And then I would also probably throw in the confluence of the Final Four leading into Master's Week being right around the opening day.

That's just so good. That's so good. The only thing about the final four for me is it's anti-climactic. Like it's the other part of the tournament, the first two weekends of the tournament, are really because of the volume of games. It's just so great, you know, or the first weekend, really. You know, the first round, the second round, all of those games. I think when we, and then the second weekend with the Sweet 16 and the Elite 8, I think it's almost like Championship Sunday in the NFL for me. I think it's anticlimactic. Like we've gotten, there isn't like a buffet of games all day long.

You know what I mean? Like I love the NFL playoffs. I think the wild card weekend now is great with six games in total. And now one of them is going to move to Monday night. I think the first weekend of the tournament's great. But there's something about this week surrounding a holiday that I love too that makes it nice. Just out of curiosity, did you stay up and watch Gonzaga, UCLA last night? I didn't. I bailed. I'm sorry. It's a personal failing, and I should have followed that through.

This guy, the freshman center for Gonzaga, the big seven-footer from Minneapolis, yep. Why am I blanking? Chet Holmgren. Right. He has, first of all, he's seven feet, Barry, and he's like 190 pounds soaking wet. I've never seen somebody that tall and that skinny, for starters. But my God, is he so skilled? I mean, he can shoot it, he can handle it.

He's going to be an unbelievable player. They just have become a national program. I mean, they get guys like that. If you're the coach at the University of Minnesota, and that kid groves up in your town, in your state, and you can't get him, you have no chance because a national brand is swooping in. That says something about who Mark Few and Gonzaga has become. And I'll just say one thing broadly about college hoops, Kevin, since you've led me down this road. I have a column

running, I guess it'll run tomorrow when Maryland plays in the Bahamas on Thanksgiving about the nature of the sport now and Maryland being kind of a microcosm of it. They have five pretty prominent transfers. You know, they're starting point. Point Guard played four years at Rhode Island. They're starting center played at Georgetown. The 1,068 kids transferred from Division I school to Division I school between the end of last year and the beginning of this year. And that affects every program.

So you think it's hard to follow college basketball because of the one and done. It's harder now with transfers. And I'm all for the players' rights, and I don't think that they're, should be have to sit out a year if their coach wouldn't have to sit out a year when they leave for another job but it's an interesting wrinkle and a feel to trying to figure out who exactly is playing for who in college basketball nowadays i totally agree i didn't realize it was a thousand sixty eight i mean that's unbelievable um i think that that's right and i think it also makes it much harder early in a season to figure out who's good and who isn't because when you

have all the incoming freshmen, more times than not incoming freshmen aren't going to make the difference that an older transfer is going to make. So in trying to figure out which teams are really good and which aren't is interesting. Look, I think we've had this conversation before. College basketball, which was something that you and I both loved dearly and we loved it this time a year. We loved it in the conference season and March was the caper. It's become for most people a March sport, a one-month tournament sport. With that said, for whatever reason, this first two weeks, two and a half weeks,

we've had a home game at Pauley between UCLA and Villanova, which was phenomenal. We had Gonzaga, Texas with a home court thing. I think if we could get more of these big-time matchups on home courts and not these neutral court, you know, Thanksgiving week games, which are great, and it's kind of part of the week's tradition. But I loved the UCLA Villanova game.

from a couple of weeks ago. And I thought that was great. And Gonzaga, by the way, the schedule, they've played Texas, they've played UCLA, they play your team Friday night, they play Duke on Friday night, then they play Alabama. I mean, there's going to be no doubt about how tested they are early in the season, and then they've got to play their, of course, shitty conference season before we've got to get them in the tournament. But what a non-con schedule.

I mean, number five, number two, number three. number four and number 10 in the country for them. That's amazing. That's amazing. Yeah. Well, as long as we're diving down this real quickly, you know that losing to George Mason for Mark Turgeon is not a good thing. You have a really good feel, and you've gotten a good feel over a long period of time as an ACC guy,

what Maryland's fan base is like. And they're all over them again. And I keep telling everybody, how the hell do we know? It's November. Coach Thompson once told me the most meaningless thing is college basketball results in November, to which my answer to him in our bullpen at the radio station was, well, that's because you played St. Leo and Hawaii Hilo every year. And he laughed, but he said, no, you just teams change so much year to year,

and you can't figure it out, and these coaches don't figure it out until the conference schedule starts. but what do you think about Maryland, and once again, just because a one November loss, you know, the Maryland fan base all over Turgeon? Well, and not only that loss, but then a narrow escape in the next game, too, against Hofstra. So I think both sides can be right, Kevin. I mean, Mark Turgeon is in a position with his own fan base that he is, judged and scrutinized that at every turn, every result matters, because for whatever reason,

he has not developed a kind of confidence in whether it's his game day coaching, in-game coaching, or whether it's his roster construction. It is his program. It has been his program. And I think, I mean, if you go back to the loss in the NCAA tournament, to Alabama, that left like a feel that was, it's just not palatable if you're, you're Maryland. Maryland under Mark Turgeon has not done that kind of, we're outclassing you because we are

better to many other programs. All these wins, even in, you know, their best seasons are kind of grinded out. And it's, I remember thinking after the Alabama game, Um, that's, Maryland should be able to do that to other teams in the NCAA tournament from time to time. It doesn't have to be every year. You don't, you don't realistically make the Sweet 16 every year. Um, but there's a, uh, kind of a, a feel to the program that, and I may have put this to you, this way to you at some point in the past, um, a Maryland fan that I know said, um, about Turgeon, um,

it feels like you're dating a girl you know you don't want to marry. And that's like it's kind of, that's where it's kind of settled with him. So it's tough. If you're Mark Tursian, you feel like you do, you've put your all into this, you have some good result. And you're still in November judged on a loss to a George Mason team that may end up being pretty good. and with a young coach that may end up being pretty good, too. So he's in a tough spot, but it is his, you know, it's his program. There's no one else to answer for it.

What do you think from a close distance, but not as close as I am in terms of, you know, being involved, you know, as a massive, you know, fan alum, the whole thing? How, what do you think of our fan base? You're Duky, all right, for those that don't know. All right, Barry went to Duke. It's a big love of his Duke basketball. So he's been there for all of those games in Maryland and the ACC, and he understands the fan base to a certain degree. What do you think of us?

Do you think we're delusional on what we are or what we think we are? Well, I mean, one, I would say, yes, okay, so fine, I did go to Duke. I covered the two schools I covered as a beat writer were North Carolina and Maryland under Gary Williams. So it wasn't like I could go and paint my face blue and white and cover these games. You had to get that part of it's fucked out. Feinstein would have sent you a long email if that had happened. Right. Exactly. So anyway, I think that Maryland's fan base is, and you'll hate me for saying this. I mean, when I worked in Raleigh, there's very similar elements to the NC State

fan base. That fan base won two national championships, one in 74 with David Thompson and one in 83 with Jim Bolano. Maryland, under Gary, won a national championship and went to another final four and had other teams that were capable of doing the same. So it's very natural for a fan base to say, hey, we've done that before. Why can't this guy do it again? When in fact a million things have to go right for a program like Maryland or NC State to win a national title. I also think it's possible for Maryland to look across the nation's capital and over to Charlottesville and say, hey, that guy has his program as a number one seed multiple times and won a national title at Virginia. Why don't we have a person like that? So, well, I do think it's kind of crazy that Mark

Turgeon is subjected to, you know, the level of criticism he is for one loss to George Mason in November. I also understand that the standard is not something that this program hasn't attained before. So why can't the person who's in the chair now do what Gary did? And I also, I also, I also also, you know, I mean, if we had Gary on the program right now, it was not always, you know, roses and sugar plums for him. I mean, he battled the fan base for time to time before 01 and 02. So it's an interesting, I'm not, I don't think it's a bad fan base at all. I like it kind of passion, but I, and I do understand, you know,

where they're coming from because the heights that they would like to reach have been, reached in college park before. Yeah, it's funny you bring up the NC State comparison. I've done that before. Herb Sundek went to like five or six NCAA tournaments in a 10-year period, and they haven't been to that number in aggregate over the last 15 years since they ran them. And I think sometimes, and this has been my defensive turgeon, I know that Mark is a good coach.

You know, every coach will tell you that. You know, coaches in the Big Ten will tell you that. coaches in the area will tell you he can coach. With that said, the results in March haven't been good enough. It's a shame that he didn't get that chance in 2020 with his best team because maybe the conversation that we're having right now, we wouldn't be having at all. But it's also possible that if they'd gone out early in 2020,

he might not even be here right now. But anyway, let's move on to the things that I think most people who are listening want us to talk about. And that is your column. Barry wrote a column, which I would urge you to read. Washington has waited 30 years for a receiver like Terry McClure. Make the case that Terry McClurens, the best receiver this organization's had since Art Monk. So I was talking in the press box in Carolina on Sunday with like J.P. Finley and Ben Standig of the athletic and Mitch Titchler from NBC Sports Washington was there. And Terry had made the catch down the sideline in the first half that's kind of typical of him, you know,

contested ball, he's just in the air, and just doing things that not a lot of people do. And it came up, well, is he the best Washington receivers this century? And really the contenders, I think there are three contenders this century, and they would be Santana Moss, Deshaun Jackson, and Pierre Garshan. And to me, Santana is the easyest. as the best of those three. Because that's 10 seasons. He played with so many bad quarterbacks

and so much, through so much bad offensive football. And he just showed up with the professionalism and a work ethic. And he produced, despite, you know, not really ever being in a great offense. Garsohn was, you know, established as a security blanket for Peyton Manning by the time he'd, got here. He doesn't strike. His numbers were good while he was here, and he was their best

receiver while he was here, but he didn't strike me ever as a guy you had the game plan for. He got, he did his job, but he wasn't explosive. The Sean is the guy you say, okay, that's a guy that you, if the other coaches have to say, we're aware of wherever he is at all at all time. I think the knock against him would be, not that he was a one-trick pony, but he did miss nine games in his three-season here, so he wasn't always available. And he, you know, he didn't have the production underneath

even if he was hitting the home run ball. So, so Harry McLaren is right now 39 games into his Washington career. If you take all the receivers since Art Monk and Ricky Sanders and Gary Clark, they were all done by 93 here. He is averaging more receptions per – or as many receptions per game as Garsohn in 5.1, more yards per game than anybody, including Jackson, including Santana, and more touchdowns per game during that time. And then I think viscerly, you watch him, and he's just, he makes plays in traffic. I think the touchdown catch on Sunday, where he was just being mulled. A lot of guys don't make that play. I mean, he drew the penalty and made the catch.

I just feel like there's such an upside for him that he's just getting started, that he's played with seven starting quarterbacks already. and if he, whether it's Hineke or somebody else, finds a quarterback that is there for the long haul, there's not a lot of limits on what he can do, not because, you know, he can beat you downfield three times a game, but because he makes all the catches in all sorts of circumstances. That's a fairly long-winded answer as to why I think he's the best month. Yeah, I read your column this morning after the radio show, And I thought about it, and I agreed with you.

I think that that's true. I think it's true. Now, I do think, because you included some tight ends into the statistical, you know, look back over, you know, as past catchers. I personally feel like Jordan Reed's one of the great what-ifs in franchise history. I think that, first of all, he had a quarterback for a few years there with cousins. And if he didn't have the injury issue, you know, issue, the concussion. issue. I think he would have been, it's very possible, he would have been the greatest tight end

in franchise history and one of the great numbers accumulators in terms of past receptions and yards in franchise history. But I think you're right about Terry McClorn. And, you know, I hope it doesn't end up being like an Alan Robinson situation. And there have been a couple of others where they don't have a quarterback answer for a significant portion of his career because we might we may realize how good he is, like people have always understood about Robinson and Chicago as an example, but maybe he won't get to the numbers that some of the great all-time receivers will get to. I think right now he's right there as a top 10 receiver in the league, Barry, and Washington hasn't had that in a long time, even with Deshaun and Pierre.

I mean, they were 15 plus, you know, and Deshaun's available. was the biggest issue. But he is now right there in year three as almost a top 10 receiver. You can make that case in the league right now. Right. And that's with, you know, a revolving door at quarterback that probably is not over. I just, I think, again, there's the statistical argument, which there's a really good graphic that ran with the column that shows everybody's since Monk, the Washington receivers with the most yards, since Monk, and Terry leads across the board. And then, you know, say, okay, so say Heineke's his quarterback for the next three years,

and I'm not arguing that that should be the case, and that's a separate discussion. But you can already see, and this is why Taylor has some success, like, he knows who his best player is, and he knows. knows the situations that he needs to get him the ball. He said it repeatedly. If you've got Terry one-on-one, you've got to take that shot because he's going to, a 50-50 ball for Terry McLaren is probably a 70-30 ball in favor of Washington. There's just a willingness to work at his craft.

He talked about contested balls after the Carolina game and said, you know, this used to be weakness of mine. And what does that tell you? It's now a strength. That was interesting, that part of the story, that he told you that catching contested balls was his weakness at Ohio State. Crazy. Because you would think, like, oh, this guy's probably been fighting and winning those 50-50 battles, you know, since he was a little kid. So I just think that there's so much that he's already accomplished and his attitude kind of would lead you to believe that he's going to prove on what he's already accomplished. And the numbers would say, okay, yes, he is better than anybody since Monk.

I also think the upside would lead us to believe that it's going to be a no-brainer within the next year. So as he continues to develop, and again, if he has to see a quarterback, he continues to get into a rhythm with the person that's playing that position. Read the column. It's a good column. and there's a lot of really good information and some stuff from Terry that's excellent.

Barry's column in the post. All right, so that leads into the quarterback. What is your position on Taylor Heineke? I mean, I love watching him play. I think he's getting better. I do not in any way. I think he's a long-term solution to lead this team consistently into, you know,

deep playoff runs. I just feel like, and that's not a knock against him, This is a guy that, you know, he was out of football a year ago at this time, and he has really capitalized on this opportunity. I think it's there to say that you love his story and love how he goes about it and simultaneously believe that their long-term solution that quarterback is not currently in the building. And until and unless that is solved, then there is a limit on what they can become on a year-to-year basis. They've been limited by it for 25 years, and unless they address it, I'll believe that they don't, that there is a cap on what they can achieve. Yeah, I've said for the last six months, or since early in the season, when we, you know, when all hell broke loose with DEA raids and, you know, emails and the whole thing, because, of course, it's never ending. You know, there are a couple of like, like the Taylor Heineke conversation's a big one because of the position.

But they have the worst owner in professional sports. They don't have a quarterback in a sport that requires that you have one or you really can't win consistently. That's the macro view of the team right now. Like those are the two most important things. And in my view, you know, and I go back to like the Indianapolis example when they drafted Peyton Manning, the Ursays were considered. horrendous owners. Now, or the older Ursae was. Now, they were able to attract Bill Pollian as the general manager, but the drafting of Peyton Manning masked everything that was wrong with that franchise. And I'm not suggesting the Colts were nearly as, you know, awful as Washington's been

as an organization. But it was a bad organization. Bidwell, the older Bidwell, not the son, who, you know, went to Georgetown Prep here locally that runs the team. Now, the older one was considered a disastrous cheap owner. And somehow they got Kurt Warner and they became really good and nearly won a Super Bowl. So for me, it's like the only answer and the only way out of this thing, Barry, is to land luckily because it is, there's some good fortune involved in the whole quarterback, you know, landing on the franchise quarterback thing, is to land on a franchise quarterback. And I have this sense that Ron understands that and they're going to take some big swings in the

off season. what do you think they think? You told me what you think. What do you think they think? Well, I think it tells you something that they took a swing for Stafford last off season, right? They didn't land him, and that's understandable. I get it. It was a failed attempt, and obviously Stafford's doing what he's doing with the Rams.

But that's revelatory about what they think and the importance of the position is. I think Ron Rivera has to be quite self-aware that. that, yes, did he coach a team to a Super Bowl? He did. That team went 15 and 1 because Cam Newton had an MVP year as a dynamic quarterback that lifted. You know, they had a good defense and a good tight end and all of that. But they went 15 and one and they reached the Super Bowl because their quarterback played at an elite level. This is not a mystery.

I mean, they've got a stopgap who's fun to watch right now. has kept them on the fringes of keeping them alive for a postseason birth. But I can't imagine that Ron Rivera is getting into his office and thinking, well, I mean, when Taylor is fully developed in 2024, we're really going to be rolling. I just don't think that that's just not a thought that he or anybody in that building is having, other than Taylor Harvey County. I think that's 100% true up until two weeks ago, and now I don't know what they think. I think that all of their actions spoke to, well, Taylor Heineke and nobody in the building is the guy.

You know, you mentioned Stafford. They looked into so many different quarterbacks. They looked into trading up and then they settled on Fitzpatrick. And if you believe some of the stories, they may have been interested in Mitch Trubisky just three weeks ago before the trade deadline. But I wonder if there's any, well, wait a minute, after the last two games, especially the game he played on Sunday, which was, by the way, his best, by far? So I think they have reeled back the idea that when Ron said, oh, we got to make him be a game manager.

I think that's that idea's out the window because he's not at his best. He's at his best when the play breaks down and he uses his legs or he keeps the play alive, like the fourth down play to bait that was a really, you know, and that could have been a disaster and the call went right. and he made a play. I think what they think about the position going forward doesn't have to be fully formed at Thanksgiving 2021. That's right.

When they're not, you know, they're not going to trade for Mitch Trubisky now. This guy is in the chair for the rest of the year. And if that ends up with a late season push toward the playoffs because he has taken care of the ball and used his legs to make plays and turned it. a lot of performances that look like against Tampa Bay or against, against Carolina, then they might have a more serious discussion about what they need going forward. If it looks like it looked in the, you know, a month ago against Denver or things like that, then maybe the discussion is different.

So I don't know that it has, they've got three and seven Seattle on Monday night to try to beat. I don't think solving, I think solving quarterback for 2022 is super important. I think it's there for them to not have to not worry about that, you know, Thanksgiving Week 2021. That's right. They don't have to worry about it now. They've got seven games left and I think it's becoming very clear he's going to play the final seven way when it may not have been that clear two or three weeks ago.

I mean, it's the NFL. Things change literally on a weekly basis. But here's one thing that Tommy and I talked about on the podcast yesterday and I mentioned earlier. And I think it's an interesting part of this conversation. So I think they want to aim higher. They've tried to aim much higher. Clearly, their actions have spoken, you know, their position, which is we don't have our franchise quarterback on our roster. With that said, their choices may be limited. There aren't a lot of quarterbacks in free agency next year. You're talking about Matt Ryan, if the Falcons cut them being the biggest prize.

at 38 years old, he's not going to come here. None of the tradable quarterbacks, Wilson, Rogers, or Deshawn, they've all made it very clear that they're not coming here. And so the free agent window, you know, the free agent, you know, offering becomes Trabisky and Winston and Tyrod Taylor and Bridgewater. And then if you're in the draft, you know, most people will tell you this isn't a great quarterback draft.

And they may, if they win a couple more games, not be in position to draft anybody, without trading up to begin with. What I'm driving at is it's very possible that Taylor Heineke that they want to aim higher and they don't think he's the future, but that next year he's going to be a big part of the conversation. That's totally true. I mean, there's a difference between needing to solve your long-term instability at

quarterback and being able to solve it. That's right. You can't force it. And that's why, you know, in all the speculation of what they could have and should have done in the past couple of drafts, and I was advocating in 2020 that, you know, if you like one of those quarterbacks, if you think that Tua or Justin Herbert, it can be the guy, you owe it to yourself to take them at two or try to trade up and get burrow. You know, if you think that that person is the person. But if you don't think that Justin Fields or, you know,

Mac Jones or whoever is going to be your quarterback for the next 10 years, don't take them. Don't do it. Don't take Dwayne Haskins because you need a quarterback and he's a quarterback that's available. That sets your program back further. So I agree with you, Kevin. It all has to go with what their internal evaluation is of the options that are available and how does Heineke develop over the remaining seven games of this season?

Because there's a chance if he does play like he did the last two that you're saying, well, now he has like 19 starts under his belt. He improved from the byweek through the end of the season to a degree where we're really happy with that level of play. We don't think, you know, the kid from Mississippi or the other members of what, as you said, it might be a weak quarterback draft, our quarterback for 10 years, we're going to put a pause on that project. But it has to be based on your own evaluation of the options, and you have to be right in those evaluations.

Last one. How many more games do they win? You're funny because I promise that I wasn't going to talk about standings and stuff if they beat Carolina because I declared the season, the competitive portion of the season over on Halloween night after the loss of Denver. But I always do this anyway, where then I get roped back in to sort of look at the whole playoff permutations. And I already mentioned that it's very possible they could be sitting in the number seven spot

by late Monday night, depending on what else happens this weekend. So how many more wins do they have in them? And what does the rest of the season look like to finish up? I mean, I hate to say, I wrote this coming out of the game. like you're exactly right. They suck you back in because as bad as they were, and I thought the Denver game was basically unwatchable. And as, you know, they just got completely blown out in the second half

against Kansas City, a Kansas City team that was struggling at the time, you know, with a terrible defense. I just was like, this thing is going in the wrong direction. But now it's not crazy to me that they would go five and, you know, win five more games. the rest of the way that gets them to nine because the path is there, right? Like, they can beat Seattle. Seattle is struggling.

They have them at home, and I forget all the Monday night history. They can beat Seattle. The Raiders are in some form of off-the-field and on-the-field disarray. Coaching change, a terrible accident involving a potentially star of receivers no longer with the team. They can win in Vegas. That gets them to $500. and then they finish with the five NFC East games that, like, one is against the Giants.

If you can't beat the Giants, you don't deserve to go to the playoffs. Two are against the Eagles, which, okay, can they split those games? They can probably split that game, although Philly's playing better. And then Dallas, you know, there's some health things going on there. They don't look as impervious as they did before. So could they split those games? Yeah, they could split those games. If you get to 9 and 8 in the NFC, I think you're going to the playoffs, don't you?

Yeah, probably. I just still, I still don't think they're a good team. I think they played. I don't disagree with you. I think they played well, really well, the last two weeks. And sometimes in the NFL, we have to forget about, like I think I said it on Monday that, you know, this Bill Parcells, you are, which your record says you are. The NFL changes week to week. And the bottom line is, is that they've actually played like they're a decent team the last two weeks. Now, we have to see whether or not that continues because they weren't. a good team and they were a terrible team actually. They were a bad football team during that four-game streak. Even if you thought there were incremental, you know, improvements on defense or, you know, offensively they were moving the ball, the whole thing. So I still don't think they're a good team, so I don't think they're going to win five more. But like you said, Seattle looks like they're on the verge of imploding. Washington's now a favorite in that game. They opened as a two and a half point dog. The Raiders, all hell's broken loose there. And by the way, that might be the big

Washington home crowd of the year. There may be more people in Vegas to watch the skins on December 5th or whatever date that is than have been at any of the home games so far. So you've got that going on. And then you've got a lot of division games. Personally, I don't think they're as good as Dallas or Philadelphia. But we'll see. I mean, this is where I give Ron Rivera a lot of credit because, you know, he was able to keep that team together.

last year and obviously the division played into them going to the postseason. This year, the NFC's bunched up standings will allow somebody at 8 and 9 or 9 and 8, certainly to be a 7 seed and be a wild card team. And Rivera's got a history of not losing his teams in bad, in in rough spots, having people kind of believe in him and really kind of just figuring it out by the end of the year. I would just say this, Kevin, and I don't disagree with you that they were a bad team, and I was very, very close to writing them off as well. What the last two weeks provide is a blueprint for how they can do it.

If they play that way, then that becomes who they are. Then they are that team. They're not two games, doesn't do it, but nine would. And I do think it's a repeatable formula. Heineke takes care of the ball. They run the ball really, really well. The defense is not dominating like we thought it might be, but also is not laughable like it was,

particularly on third down through the first half of the season. I don't think that there's anything they did the past couple of weeks where you go, whoa, they can't possibly repeat that again. Maybe the 10-and-a-half-minute drive to close the game against the box, that you can't always count on doing that. but I think they've come to a formula that is their formula. It's just a matter of how many times did they draw it out of themselves over the last nine games of the season.

I think that's really well said because it is a formula, and by the way, it's a tried and true formula, not to win Super Bowls necessarily, but to have a chance to win games that you're playing in and win enough of them to be a playoff team. I would say that with seven left, that formula, if they play at that level, they're going to have a chance to win every game

and they're going to have a chance to lose every game which means four and three would be the best, which would get them to eight, which is a possibility that eight and nine might get you a seven seed this year. Who knows? This was fun, as always. I always enjoy the conversation.

I hope you're well. Happy Thanksgiving. We'll talk soon. Thanks, Kevin. I appreciate it. Happy Thanksgiving to you guys. Read Barry's column on Terry McClureen. It's a good one.

It really is. and I don't know if it'll make you think the way I thought, which sort of led me down this path of agreeing with him on McLorne. And to be honest with you, I don't think it's really close in terms of receivers. You know, Henry Ellard was great, you know, while he was here for the brief period that he was here. Pierre and Deshaun obviously were part of a pretty prolific offense,

which included Jordan Reed when healthy, and all three of them were on the field. They were really tough to stop offensively. But Deshaun and Pierre were not even where Terry is now. And Terry's rising. Terry's borderline top 10 now. I don't think he is top 10, but he's borderline conversation top 10, and he's probably going to be in there next year.

You know, I still think, you know, Devante Adams and DeAndre Hopkins and Tareke Hill and Justin Jefferson for sure and Mike Evans and, you know, Cooper Cup. right now with the year he's having. I think, you know, but I don't know how many names I just ripped off, but it's probably not 10. It's probably more like seven or eight.

And so he's in that conversation. I think Cooper and Lamb and Metcalf and Keenan Allen for sure are, you know, guys that you could debate are better than McLaren. You could. But he's, you know, he's pointing upwards. Jackson and Garsohn were never there. Jackson and Garsohn in 2015 and 2016. weren't anywhere near, you know, the level of Antonio Brown or Julio Jones or DeAndre Hopkins or Larry Fitzgerald or, you know, Beckham Jr. actually.

Calvin Johnson was still in the league for, I think, both of those years. Maybe not 2016. I forget now. Jordan Reed was catching more balls, you know, in 2015 anyway. I think Jordan Reed was, one of the great what-ifs in franchise history and was in 2015 and 2016. a top three player at his position. I think it was Gronk, Kelsey, and Jordan Reed is the three best pass catchers, pass catching tight ends in the business. Jordan Reed could have been an all-timer, really could have been. He was virtually uncheckable. And to me, a big part of why they were really prolific at times in 15 and 16,

certainly in 16. And all of you people that reach out and give me the red zone, numbers. I understand that. But they were rarely off the field. I think they punted fewer than any teams in the league, except for Atlanta in 2016. Anyway, it just got me to thinking, like McCorn's really in the conversation of, like,

legitimate, you know, top 10 at his position right now, and climbing. You know, you can say that, and we certainly could say that about, you know, Trent Williams when he was here. We've said that about Brandon Sheriff when he's here. You know, right now, other than Sheriff and McClorn and John Allen, it's hard to make the case that anybody else is top 10 at their position. We thought it would be Chase Young and or Montez Sweat this year, but it hasn't been.

And now it won't be. Anyway, thanks to Barry. When we come back 30 years ago today, 1991, the winning streak came to an end. Also wanted to give you a quick Thanksgiving Day smell test. We'll do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. All right, this final segment of the show heading into Thanksgiving Day is brought to you by My Bookie. My Bookie's got a turkey day opportunity you won't want to miss. It deals with the Cowboys Raiders game tomorrow.

the line is seven and a half. If you bet the Cowboys and lay the seven and a half and you lose, or you bet the Raiders and get the seven and a half and you lose, my bookie's offer tomorrow is to refund you up to $250 worth your bet. So if you bet $250 in the game and you lose, you're going to get $250 in a refund. Now you have to use that $250 refund to wager on something else. But this is a no-lose proposition.

The first thing you do is go to mybooky.ag or mybooky.com and sign up and use my promo code, Kevin D.C., and they'll double your first deposit all the way up to $1,000. So if you deposit $1,000, you'll end up with $2,000 in the account. And then you can use the $250 of that $2,000 to place a no-brainer wager on the game tomorrow. If you win, you get the $250. If you lose, you get to $250 refund. it. On Friday, they're going to have tons of odds boosts that you'll have a chance to take advantage of. But this is a great offer right now. And I've told you many times, my bookie has fair lines, fair totals, fair money lines, fair pricing, you're going to get paid. They've got every prop bet, every in-game opportunity you need. Go to my bookie at mybooky.com or mybooky.orgie.orgie. and use my promo code, Kevin D.C. They'll double your first deposit instantly, and you'll get this $250 risk-free bet

for tomorrow's Raiders Cowboys game. Quick smell test, full-fledged smell test on Friday. I like the Bears laying three, and the Raiders getting seven and a half. Those are the two smell test picks. I almost gave out Mississippi State, minus the point in the Egg Bowl on Thanksgiving night against Ole Miss.

I'm going to pass on that one. The bears are thought to be dead in the water. Nagy could get fired. The lions played the Steelers close and then nearly beat the Browns. I mean, they tied the Steelers nearly beat the Browns as a 13-point underdog. Believe it or not, the winless Detroit Lions at home on Thanksgiving are the public favorite. I'll go anti-public and take Chicago. And then I like the Raiders because I think there's a lot of thought that the Cowboys

bounce back off that loss two weeks ago, or three weeks ago now, almost three weeks ago, to the Broncos with a blowout win over the Falcons. And then last week, it beat at Arrowhead by the Chiefs. I think there's this expectation that they will bounce back tomorrow against a reeling Raiders team who, you know, they've lost a bunch of games in a row, and they're really, really struggling after the loss of their coach, the loss of their receiver with that tragedy, with rugs. I like the Raiders plus seven and a half in part because I don't think anybody else will have them.

Bears and Raiders tomorrow, full-fledged. Lots of smell test picks, I believe, for the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday games as well. Real quickly on Thanksgiving Day, I just don't have a problem with the Lions continuing to host on Thanksgiving Day. It's a tradition that started in 1934. It's a tradition that that city embraces. it just doesn't bother me. I know it bothers a lot of people, but they kind of addressed that when, you know,

10, 11, 12, 13 years ago, whenever it was, they added the Thursday night Thanksgiving night game. So that gave every team in the league, you know, an opportunity to host a Thanksgiving Day game. I don't think every team likes to host Thanksgiving Day games, but it gave a third game to the day, pro game, and created an opportunity for somebody other than Detroit and Dallas to host. I definitely don't have an issue at all with Dallas hosting.

They've been doing it since 1966. There was an odd period for three years in the mid-70s where Pete Roselle took the game away from Tech Schramm and the Cowboys and gave it to the Cardinals. The Cardinals were, for whatever reason, a team that Pete Roselle loved. These were the Don Corrielle, Jim Hart, Mel Gray, Terry Metcalf Cardinals with Conrad Dobler, Dan Deirdorf. They took the game away from the Cowboys the year after

the most famous Thanksgiving Day game ever, which was the Clint Longleague comeback against Washington in 1974 to win the game 24-23. Then the Cowboys had the game taken away from them. Now, they did play in 76 against the Cardinals. The Cardinals in 75 hosted O.J. Simpson and the Bills and lost 32 to 14. By the way, in that game, Jim Braxton, the fullback, and O.J. Simpson, the tailback, combined for 57 carries for 246 yards on the ground. That's unbelievable. The next year, the Cardinals played the Cowboys and lost 19 to 14. And then in 77, they hosted the Dolphins and lost 55 to 14.

Roselle apologized to the Cowboys for taking the game away from them. The Cardinals lost all three, scored 14 points in all three. and the Cowboys had the game back in 1978 where they hosted Washington and won 37 to 10. Interestingly, that was Washington's last Thanksgiving Day game for 12 years. They didn't play on Thanksgiving against the Cowboys again for 12 years, and then they faced Emmett Smith,

Aikman, Irvin, Young Cowboy Team in 1990 and lost 27 to 17 on Thanksgiving Day that year. And then they've played a bunch of times since. The Skins hosted Thanksgiving Day night back in 2017 against the Giants in 120 to 10. They've only played the Lions once on Thanksgiving Day and won that in 1973, 20 to nothing. But anyway, I don't have a problem with the Lions and Cowboys being the annual hosts of the early game and the midday, you know, late afternoon game on Thanksgiving Day. Speaking of the Cowboys, 30 years ago today, The Cowboys came into RFK Stadium as a 6-5 team against 11-0 Washington.

This story of the sports world was Washington's win streak, trying to be perfect, trying to match the 72 Dolphins by going undefeated. They were 11-0. They had outscored their opponents in the previous two games, 97 to 31. In games against the Falcons and Steelers coming in to the game 30 years ago today against the Cowboys at RFK Stadium, Mark Rippin had thrown for nearly 800 yards and had thrown for eight touchdowns.

Washington was the story of the sports world. I actually said that this morning on radio and somebody corrected me and said, Magic Johnson was the story in November 1991 because he announced that he had HIV. Okay. Other than that story, Washington was the sports story at that point in 1991.

one and they were rolling. They were 12 and a half point favorites over the Cowboys who were six and five. This was the Jimmy team with Aitman, Irvin, Emmett, et cetera, Moose Johnston, Novichick, before they had made a playoff game. They would make the playoffs later that year for the first time and then won the Super Bowl the following year. This was a huge game for Jimmy Johnson. And he got after it aggressively. He onside kicked Washington in the first half. He went for three fourth downs. That was a big deal in 1991. And right before the half in a 7-7 game, Pat Sumerall and John Madden on the call.

You know, and here, this is the third time in the first half that the Cowboys are going for it on fourth down. Their choice is to kick a field goal. It would have been a 51-yard field goal. I think they want to get a first down and then maybe go for the field goal. But they're out of timeout. There is Aikman back to throw it. going to take a Hail Mary shot. Touchdown.

Alvin Harper out of the pack. Touchdown from the shot from Akeman. I think Jimmy Johnson hasn't made one single conservative ball today. I thought you try and get the ball. You get out of better. Let's go for the juggler if you're playing here. Take the thing. It's fourth down.

The third time in the first half they've gone for the fourth down. Look at this ball up in the air. Number 80. Halvin Harper coming up with it, how can that happen? Right in the middle of five redskins. And he caught it clean. Usually those things are tipped where you catch him on a rebound. He caught that thing.

It wasn't even tipped. Novichick holding in the cowboy leading 14-7. Four seconds left. So they will have to kick it off. I'll tell you, that was a beautiful catch. I don't know that I've seen football. like the Cowboys are playing where you come in and play as aggressively as they had. We've had them go for fourth down on three times.

We've had them get an onside kick. They've pulled out all the stops in this first half. Hail Mary to Alvin Harper, a famous play in that season. A lot of us remember how the street came to an end and remember that Hail Mary at the end of the half to Alvin Harper. the Cowboys went on to win the game 24 to 21. The big story, of course, was Washington's win streak in their attempt at a perfect season coming to an end. The other big story was Troy Aikman hurt his knee in the game

and didn't play again that year. Steve Burline came into the game, led the Cowboys in the second half. Washington really never had a chance. The Cowboys built a 21-7 lead, a 24-14 lead. Washington scored very late, couldn't come up with the onside kick, lost 24-21, and Burline led to Cowboys the rest of the year on what was a five-game winning streak into the playoffs where they beat Chicago, lost to Detroit, and their season came to an end. Washington, of course, at 11-1 was still very much in control of the NFC East race. They hadn't clinched the division yet,

but they had an opportunity to do that the following week in Los Angeles against the Rams, and that's what we will talk about next week. years ago today, Dallas 24, Washington 21 at RFK Stadium, the perfect season dream, came to a crashing halt. Jimmy Johnson still calls it one of the most significant games of the early portion of his run in Dallas. They looked up to Washington. That was the team they needed to beat Washington and New York, who were better teams than the Cowboys then. Very similar to what George Allen did when he got to Washington in the early 70s. He pointed to the Cowboys and said, we've got to be better than them. We've got to beat them.

Well, Jimmy pointed to Washington and said, we've got to beat Washington. And they did it, and they were off and running through the rest of that decade. But there was still a Super Bowl for Washington to go get in 1991. We'll continue next week with the following week's game in Los Angeles against the Rams. All right, that's it for the day. Back on Friday off tomorrow. Thanksgiving to all of you. Thank you so much for supporting this podcast. It's been three years now. It's amazing. We started it in the fall of 2018. I love doing this podcast. It's much more fun for me,

to be honest with you, working with other people. I love doing it with Tommy. I love doing it when coolie's on. I love that dynamic. For me, I've always felt much more comfortable working with somebody else. It's a lot easier for starters, but I really enjoy it. And I can't tell you how much I appreciate all of your support. We wouldn't still be here doing this if we didn't have your support. It's meant everything. This is the future. This podcast and, you know, different iterations of the podcast, some sort of video podcast, some sort of YouTube channel. There's a lot that we've got in the works and eventually I think we will get to all of it. But again, I wish you the happiest of Thanksgivings. I'll be back on Friday. And again, thank you so much for everything.