The Kevin Sheehan Show - Worst Loss Yet; What's Next?

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

Kevin and Thom today with their reactions to the Commanders' 31-19 loss to the Giants at Fed Ex yesterday. Will somebody get fired this week? The boys gave pros, cons, and guesses on Rivera, Del Rio, and more. Kevin had his complete "Game-Take" with the few things he liked from the game and a long list of dislikes. The boys picked tonight's Eagles-Chiefs game, talked other NFL, and Kevin had some thoughts on the Maryland hoops loss to Villanova on Friday night and the Terps loss to Michigan on Saturday in football.  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 Cheyenne Show. Here's Kevin. From the Giants 48. Powell under pressure. And then he will throw.

Oh, Isaiah Simmons with the interception down the sideline. Simmons into the end zone. Touchdown Giants on their sixth takeaway of this game. Well, that was it. That was the final chance to come back against the lowly giant. Yeah, they had to come back to have a chance to win yesterday at FedEx Field, which they actually called a sellout yesterday. I didn't hear that it looked much like a sellout.

Tommy, I think, was there, and he is with me. He's got another Monday, Wednesday week before we get back to the Tuesday, Thursday schedule. The week this week will include shows for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. No show on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day. And then we will be in here on Friday to do a postgame of the Thanksgiving Day game in Dallas. All right. The show presented, as always, Windon Nation. Call them at 86690 Nation or go to Windonation.com.

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You'll save big on energy bills. And your home will look much nicer as well. Hello, Tom. You were at the game yesterday, right? Yes, I was at the game. And the reason I had to do Monday, Wednesday this week, is tomorrow I am getting rotor-rooted, so to speak. Oh, wait, what do you mean, rotor? Oh, you are?

I'm having a colonoscopy. Oh, a colonoscopy. I thought you were saying you were getting, like, a heart thing with a stent or whatever. No. Okay. Oh, no, no, no. You're getting your colonoscopy two days before Thanksgiving? Yes.

I want to make room for all that food. Yeah. Well, you're going to make plans. plenty of room for it. That's good. The problem. Today is the day of zero eating. Yeah. Today is the day of prep. And the prep is much easier because I've now had two of them. And the prep, the one that I had, well, I had it within the last year. I think I talked about it.

The prep was, you know, it's never comfortable. But I didn't have to, they were pills. I didn't have to drink that stuff. stuff that I had to drink last time. Well, that's interesting because I have to drink the stuff. They didn't give me pills. I should have asked about that. I had one of these nearly 40 years ago. Oh, I know.

You've told me. Yeah, you've told me. I've heard about those, yeah. All right. Well, good luck with it. Well, thank you. Yeah. And, you know, the thing is, is when you're done, it's Tuesday, Thanksgiving's Thursday.

you are going to want to eat something when you're done. I think that meal coming off of one of those things is one of the really good meals to have because you feel like you can get back to eating. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we have a busy week. You're going to Philly, right? Yes. I will be going to Philly where there will be about 31 relatives together in one house.

We're doing the hosting of Thanksgiving, which we have done for a long time now. And I think we've got 25, nowhere near the biggest group we've had, but a lot bigger than the group we had during COVID. So, yeah, 25 or so. We're supposed to get a massive rainstorm tomorrow, tomorrow night into Wednesday. You know what I have noticed in watching some of the coverage of, like I've read about Thanksgiving travel this week. People now go earlier. Wednesday used to be the single biggest travel day of the year,

followed by the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend where people were returning. Now Tuesday's just as big as Wednesday. So people are leaving earlier. That may be a function too of people aren't back. at work as much as they were pre-COVID. I don't know. Anyway, I love Thanksgiving. It's my favorite holiday of the year.

I wish Washington weren't playing on Thanksgiving. I know for a lot of you you like doing it, but I end up having to focus on the game, and then I have responsibilities during the game, pre-post. But my wife has already given me instructions this year that we are going to eat at halftime. I told her how long half time is. She said, well, that's not long enough.

So you'll just hit the pause button and you can fast forward through the commercials. That's fine. I don't even, you know what, Tommy? I swear to you right now, if I didn't do what I did this Thursday, I would, I'd sit down for Thanksgiving dinner. I would definitely be recording it or pausing it. I wouldn't be in a hurry to get back to it. just not a cowboy Redskin Thanksgiving Day game that has a lot of meaning this year.

Well, you know, there haven't been that many that this team has won. They've only won two out of ten games they've played on Thanksgiving. But they've all come in the last, you know, 11 years now. Yes. Robert Griffin the 3rds, 2012 game. And then Alex Smith. And then Alex Smith. They crushed them, I think, 41 to 15.

14 or 41 to 24, something like that. Yeah, true. Man, it just seems like, you know, there were a lot of years in which, for whatever reason, they didn't have, Cowboys and Redskins didn't play a lot on Thanksgiving there for many, many years. But this last 10, 12 years, there have been plenty of Washington, Dallas Thanksgiving Day games. So, anyway, you know what it is, Tommy? I'll tell you what it is. for this. It's because you can put anything on Thanksgiving Day, and it's going to get a massive rating,

massive rating. And so they want to save the two Philly games with Dallas for, you know, regular Sunday or Sunday night football, which is a big spot. It's just like the Thursday night, Thursday night regular season opener. They had Detroit in that game against the Chiefs, and the Chiefs could have had, You could have opened the season with Philly because they're there tonight. Huge game tonight. By the way, I like the under tonight. Not a smell test pick. I just like the under.

And they picked Detroit. I mean, Detroit's good this year, and they knew that Detroit would be better. But you don't have to put, you know, big-name teams on Thanksgiving anymore, which is why now Washington has had a bunch of them in recent years. Because it's not really important. Detroit of Washington. They're the second version of the Lions. Yeah. I mean, they played the Giants last year.

The Giants ended up being a good team last year, but there was an expectation that they would be good. They played the Raiders the year before that, Washington the year before that. They did play the Bills in 2019. Washington the year before that. Yeah. God, Washington since 2016, this will be the fourth game against the Cowboys on Thanksgiving. fourth. Okay. All right. So I will have my complete game take coming up in the next segment of the show. I have some high-level thoughts on this game, you know, in general. But I think the number one story coming out of this game, given that they lost it, is should they, will they, fire somebody, Ron Rivera, Jack Del Rio being prominent among the name.

being wished for by many in the fan base. Do you think they should be fired? Do you think they will be fired? As of now, they haven't been, as of the recording of this podcast on early Monday afternoon. I think they should be fired. I don't think they will be fired.

And like I wrote in my column, the only thing that's probably going to save Ron Rivera from not being fired this week is Thanksgiving. And the whole short week. You wrote the Pilgrims saved Ron Rivera this week. Yes, they did. Yes, they did. I think that would only add to an aura of chaos.

If it was a normal week, I think the chances would increase significantly that both of them may be gone. And also, you know, I mean, that may not be true, even though that's what I think should happen. you know, I'm not as well-versed in the depth of the coaching staff as maybe the people who cover the team. And I know they have said there's really nobody on the team who can be the defensive coordinator, who can actually call defensive plays. You know, I find that hard to believe based on what I saw from Jack Del Rio,

particularly yesterday, that, you know, somebody else couldn't be just as bad. but they don't have a coaching staff full of people that can step up into these roles. We've talked about Eric Bianami taking over as the head coach, and you've brought up rightfully so. I think it's a good point. You know, that's not a good situation for him.

No. Not at all. Yeah, I... In fact, I think actually now, given that they've got two games against the Cowboys, a game against the 49ers, a game against the dolphins. I think there would be people that would be very angry

if they handed the job to Eric Bianamy and said, prove it with these final six games left. It's setting them up to fail. It's not fair to him. And I don't think he should take it if they offer it to him. I agree with you because when you look at what's ahead, where are the wins going to come from? No, right now they've got a better shot at a top.

five pick than they do at reaching where I thought they would reach, which is 8,8, and 1. You know, a game above or a game below 500. I'm okay with whatever Josh Harris decides to do. He is totally justified after yesterday, but really it's more than that. Yesterday felt like kind of a strike three with the Bears loss being a strike one and the first giant loss being a strike two. And you can tell him to head out or head back to the dugout and we're going to pinch it for him starting in the next inning because, you know, those are three hideous losses.

But I'm okay with whatever he decides to do. I don't feel for me like he's got to make a statement, has to set a tone, has to respond. And like I think if you haven't been paying attention closely and didn't really assume Ron was in a lame duck season to begin with and that he's gone at the end of the year and we've really had a good handle on that for a while because it was kind of obvious. Maybe you want some satisfaction right now or maybe you're concerned that it won't happen if it doesn't happen right now. I don't know what it is. I'm okay with waiting. If he does something now, fine. If he doesn't do something, fine.

I think handling an in-season firing, you know, you just, you know, touched on it. There are, you know, you've got to be able to do it. You've got to be able to handle that. It could be way too difficult. Like you said, the Pilgrims may save Ron or Jack this week with a game on Thanksgiving. But, you know, for me, the Josh Harris ownership era has always, since he took over the team in late July, just a week before training camp opened, this was always going to be an ownership era that started at the end of the 2023 season. I don't need it to start today. Who coaches next is much more important than who's coaching now.

You know, for now, the story, and we've mentioned this a few times here in recent weeks, it's much more about Sam Howell than Ron Rivera or Jack Del Rio. Ron and Jack and most of the staff are not part of the, you know, whose next answer. But Sam Howell still could be. And so if for whatever reason, like there could be a case made inside that building, that the best way to view Sam, the rest of the way, and the best way to get the measure of Sam the rest of the way is to not have a lot of disruption to the staff,

certainly not pull Eric Bienemy from his position, then that may be the reason not to do it. I don't think they need to prove anything by firing somebody now. I really don't. But I do agree with you that in this respect, if this were a normal situation like they hired this group or they didn't hire them, but they had a full year, last year.

This would be a got-to-go situation. But it's not a normal situation because they came in so late and couldn't do what they wanted to do. And all along they were going to do what they wanted to do at the end of this year anyway. So anyway. But let me bring up this point here. And I don't know how they feel business-wise.

This may be an irrelevant point. But to me, this is an organization that can't afford any have any more dirt to dig out of. Okay? They have a crater that they have to dig out of of two decades of dysfunction and just horrific decision-making and behavior under the Schneider era. And I just don't know if you can say, well, we'll do. suck it up and eat the rest of this, this, this lousy meal, because we've been eating garbage, you know, for 20 years. In other words, I mean, how important is it for the new ownership to have people show up to the stadium for the last three home games without, you know, being

ready to boo? Well, there will be dolphins and cowboys fans for those games. How about this, Tommy? How about, and I don't know if I've even looked at it this way, because I was just thinking about it as you were talking. Is there a risk in making a move as it relates to the business as you started to talk about there? Meaning, okay, they make their first big move. And they lose, which they probably are going to do. They lose and they don't look very good losing the rest of the way. And it's just as dysfunctional, which is certainly in play given having the Cowboys twice the 49ers and the Dolphins

on the schedule. Now their first move, which is an in-season move, which is never a move that dramatically changes the course of anybody's season. Now it's on them for doing that. So I actually would, you know, I think you could make the case if you're sitting down with them. Look, what are you really going to gain? Do you really think that there are going to be a few more tickets sold if you replace Ron or replace Jack versus you're going to probably get your ass kicked in those games anyway, and now people are going to say, look, the first move they made, they're one in five with the guy they hired as owner. I don't think people would say that.

I don't think that would be the conversation. If it doesn't work, I don't really see a downside. I don't think that would be, I think people would understand. understand. I mean, given the limited ability for, you know, somebody's fans to understand anything, I think they will understand that. I think the fact that Ron Rivera, it's not on the sideline anymore, I think they will recognize and appreciate that this ownership, you know, basically responded to their anger and frustration. You know, the other side of it may not work, but I think, look, I agree with you.

Most in-season firings don't do anything to help the actual football team. They are generally a signal to the fan base, okay, and that's what this would be. And I think recognized on that merits, I don't think what happens after the rest of the year would be any worse, then I think it would be a little bit better. actually in terms of the relationship with your fan base that if you tolerate Ron Rivera for the rest of the year. I can only speak. I think people will recognize the effort. I can only speak from how I would feel as an actual fan of the team.

Other than like the loud cacklers on social media, I would bet that a lot of people would agree with me, which is I don't need that, we don't need that signal now. We know what's coming. I'm looking forward to what's coming. I can wait for that to happen. And in fact, I could make the case that at this point, keeping Ron and Jack coaching this team gives you a better chance at a top five pick.

So let's just go down that path. So I don't, I mean. But that goes against the failure that you're predicting following a takeover of a new coach. I don't think either one of them is going to work. I don't think either one of them is going to work. out. No, that's true. Ben made a really good point to me today on radio.

You know, usually it's a, look, if it were a normal situation, you know, owner rash or not rash would be totally justified, and they're justified right now. But the reason Antonio Pierce took over when he took over in Vegas is because the players hated Josh McDaniels, you know, and other coaches weren't fond of him either. It's not the case right now. You don't have a toxic locker room as far as we know right now. And for whatever we want to say about Ron, nobody who's ever played for him dislikes him. Same with Jack.

So, you know, if you were trying to move on from a very toxic situation in that locker room, that's one thing. Again, I can wait. If they do it, fine. If they don't do it, fine. The story really for me the rest of the year is to get six more games of Sam Howl. And to get it in the best possible light to see whether or not he's the answer heading into 2024. Because yes. Okay, let me do the flip side of that.

It's not a toxic locker room. He is well-liked, but it's certainly a complacent locker room. you know, it's a locker room where there's not, there's no, there's no Josh Norman standing on his stool in front of the locker, screaming at anybody about anything. Well, that may speak more to Ron the general manager and the players there is. I know that, but still, I mean, just because it's not toxic doesn't mean it's healthy. You know, I mean, it doesn't mean they need to be. shook up. And I know I hate I don't like to generally go down this

road, but I'm just golfing the flip side that these these players need to be shook up a little bit. Well, I mean, that would be a reason if they did it and they said, look, we everybody in this building respects Ron, respects

Jack, respects a lot of the staff. By the way, you can't fire everybody because you've got nobody to coach the team. So this would be a one person. deal more likely than not. You know, I guess it could be too. But again, you know, you do have to put a team and a game plan together. And, you know, the Pilgrims and the Indians are going to save them from Thursday, maybe.

But Friday morning could be a different situation altogether. If their answer was, you know, we really looked into it. And a lot of what we've seen in these losses, it's been a result of a very complacent locker room. and the allowance of a very complacent locker room. And we don't want complacency in our organization. And we're going to move forward with, you know, someone right now who we think, you know, I'm not saying that they say this publicly,

but if that was their justification for it, that makes sense to me. There are a lot of reasons it would make sense to me if they did it. I just right now from where I sit, I don't need it to feel better. I don't feel good about this team to begin with. I am very much intrigued about the moves, the real moves they will start to make when this season ends. Now, if they end up firing them a week early or two weeks early to clean the slate

because they think he gives them a better jump on whatever or it gives a new GM, look, they may hire the GM for all we know before the season ends. That's a possibility too. That's actually what they did with Bruce Allen, if we remember. But that's because Bruce was out of work, too. There may be somebody on somebody's staff that they won on the 49ers or Ravens or Eagle staff that they want to interview. I would imagine that it'll be a process because they seem to be very, you know, give me all the data and let's get input from everybody. And then I don't know if that's them or not.

We'll see. But that's sort of the idea that I have of them. And so it'll be a process that, by the way, just so everybody understands, has already started. I know most of you recognize this. When they bought the team, they have a list. They have people that they're going to want to talk to. And if the list isn't of the actual GM candidates or head coaching candidates, they have a list of people who they want to advise them on how to create a list.

They're not just sitting back saying, oh, Ron's got a really good chance. Ron's been a lame duck for all intents and purposes from the moment Josh Harris and, you know, AI Magic have been, took over the team along with Mitch Rails. How about that tweet from Magic yesterday? That was hysterical. That was unbelievable. That was the worst AI of all. I don't know even know if it's AI. Do you think he's just, this is just kind of seeing what people, I don't know, maybe Magic's got a sense of humor, as it turns out. I think it's a I. Let me give you a plan B that accomplishes most of what you want to do if you're the owners and still allow you to pursue the curiosity that you have about how the quarterback does the rest of the season. You just fire Jack Del Rio.

I mean, how could the defense play any worse than yesterday have nine sacks and still, you know, make Tommy DeVito look like Eli Manning? Yeah. I mean, you know, there were, I mean, there were receivers that were so open in yesterday's game. I mean, how could anyone do any worse? If you fire Jack Del Rio, who the players may like, but I don't think the fan base is crazy about it. Yeah, that might be the moment. You know what?

that, again, I don't, at this point, everything's on the table, everything's justified, and if they think it through and they've got solutions and they got reasons for it, I'm all for it. It's fine. But, you know, if they just are looking for a scalp, so to speak, Jacks would probably be the one. I just think it's, I just thought it's, I just thought it was funny yesterday. I mean, it wasn't funny. It was very sad and pathetic to watch us. but those of you that listened to my Friday show, and you were on with me last week on Monday and Wednesday. So you were not on with me after I had watched.

I went back, Tommy, because I had a radio guest on on Thursday from New York, who said, DeVito's got some talent. He can really throw the football. You know, it's one start that he doesn't have much around him. And so I went back and I came in here on Friday, and I didn't give the dire warning like I gave before. were the Bears game and the Bears offense, but I said, this guy can really actually throw the football and move around. He doesn't look like what I thought he was going to look like when I

turned on the Cowboys Giants game. But look, I gave out the Giants as a smell test pick, and I bet the Giants for the limit, maximum. That game went to seven and a half. There was so much sharp money on New York yesterday before kickoff. It went from 10 to 7 and a half, ultimately, from the beginning of the week. I did not bet the Giants on the money line, though. I did not do that. I thought about it, but I just couldn't pull the trigger because I really didn't want them to win the fucking game. I wanted, I wanted like one more week, five and six Thanksgiving. All right, who knows? Maybe they play well against Dallas and pull off a shocker and, you know, whatever, but, you know, that's over. Pauley took me to task last week on radio, and he was right.

He said, they're a bad team. And I said, they're not a bad team. I go, like I think I said, the Giants are a bad team. He said, well, the Giants beat us. And I said, good point. But he goes, and that was before Sunday. And I said, but look, they nearly beat the Eagles twice. They nearly beat Seattle.

Like, they're not a bad team. They're just, you know, they're not a great. They're less than average. But they're not. No, when you lose to the Bears and the Giants, twice, you're a bad team. And the really encouraging performances against the Eagles twice and, you know,

the Seahawks last week, it doesn't really matter because they didn't win those games. And they just, Tommy, let me just put this in perspective for everybody, okay? They lost to a team, no matter who I bet and who I gave out on the smell test, okay? That was based on a formula that says when the public and especially my friends are so sure of one result, I'll go the other way.

And I had another friend who reached out to me. Same friend that reached out to me before the Chicago game and said, I'm going to put a lot of money on Washington on the money line. And I said, don't do that. And I did the same thing the other day, although I didn't believe it as much. This was a truly repulsive performance. I mean, this was bad. And it was really bad in probably more.

more galling than the other two, the loss of the bears and the Giants the first time, because the Giants basically came into this game having given up. I mean, NFL players are out there playing and they're going to play hard, but like they lost their last two games by a combined 56 points. They lost 30 to 6 to the Raiders and they lost 4917 to the Cowboys. And as much as it was obvious in watching DeVito on tape that he actually can throw the football and move around a little bit, it's not like I told you he was good. He was a third-string quarterback who threw for 86 yards last week and had an offense around him that has been basically silent except for the last Washington game.

They had not scored 16 points in a game since week two. They scored 31. They hadn't won a game since the last time they beat Washington. And it's been like the Giants and watching the Giants here recently, like when they lost to the Jets and they allowed Zach Wilson to go to distance for a walk-off field goal to beat them, that was it for them. You know, Tyrod Taylor was hurt. They put in DeVito.

They've left him there. They're essentially in the market for Caleb Williams and for Drake May and the quarterbacks as well. And they came into this game in complete shambles, in complete shambles. And not only did Washington not win in a game that was the first one I've called a should win game in years, they lost big. I mean, I know they had the ball with a chance at the end, but they were, they deserve to lose that game. And so, I don't know, man, that was. And let me just point out something.

Yes, it was bad, but a discussion that we've had many times before, and I'm usually on the other end of the discussion. Okay. I don't know if they're a bad team or if they're a team that's playing bad. Do you really think they have as much talent as I think they have on the roster to be considered a bad team? No, I don't. I think they have talent.

I'm just giving Pauly some credit because when you lose to the Giants twice and the Bears, you know, I know. I mean, then what does that make you? It makes you a bad team. It makes you a bad team or a team that's playing badly. Yeah, but they didn't play badly last week. That's what they are. They didn't play badly last week.

They didn't play badly the last three games. They can't consistently avoid playing badly. I don't know. Is it even important whether they're a bad team or playing badly? Not important. Because in addition to Ron, I think a big part of this conversation now is about the quarterback. You know, I want to come back to Ron a little bit later on. But, you know, as far as the quarterback goes, we've got to find out if how is the long-term answer.

and I know some people are absolutely convinced that they already have the answer. And you know what? It's not unreasonable now to have that opinion. You're entitled to it. You're always entitled to it. I think it was unreasonable in August for sure. But he's given you enough reasons to believe in him. I'm not entirely sure yet.

You know, he's done a lot this year to make me believe. There's a chance he's the guy. but games like yesterday are reasons to put the brakes on. You know, those are reasons to say, you know, we don't have to rush. We don't have to declare. He wasn't the biggest issue yesterday, Tommy, by a long shot, okay? He didn't play well, but there were plenty of issues that weren't, you know, of his doing and were bigger. But here's what has to happen if you really are convinced that Sam, how today,

is a franchise quarterback, whatever that means Ben and I got into this conversation today. To me, a franchise quarterback means he's a guy you know you want to be your starter for the next five to ten years and you're not going to be looking for somebody. So he's got to be top 10, top 14, 15 worst case. And here's the thing. If he's that guy, you know, you can't make the number of mistakes he made and come out expecting like a ring. endorsement to continue. You know, I mentioned this guy earlier this morning on the radio show. Aidan O'Connell is a rookie quarterback for the Raiders. Actually liked him a lot in college coming out. He had his third career start two weeks ago against the Giants. He didn't throw an interception.

He didn't take a sack. He had an excellent 81.2 QBR number. And his team won the game 30 to 6. And the bottom line is he did nothing to get in the way of beating the hell out of a bad football team, the same football team that Washington and Sam Howe faced yesterday. So, you know, it's like we don't need to rush this. Yesterday, he was not the priority. He wasn't the main problem, but he was part of the problem. And he certainly wasn't part of the solution to beat a team that should have been beaten and was beaten. by a rookie quarterback with far fewer starts. I am looking forward to Thursday from the Sam perspective, Tommy,

because he has proven one thing more than anything else. I mean, he's got the arm strength that can make all the throws. He's mobile. But the other thing he's proven this year is he's proven that he's resilient. He's proven that he's got, you know, kind of that ability to throw what just happened off, you know, his backside and just keep slinging. it. The Arizona game was not a good game for him. Next week was Denver. He played great. The Buffalo game was a hideously painful performance for him. He played really well the following week at

Philly. The Bears game was a struggle. He played better against the Falcons. The giant game, the first one, was an unmitigated disaster. And he bounced back with three solid to really good games against Philly, New England, and Seattle. So I think Thursday's game, which by the way, will be against the best defense they have faced all season long, this is a really, this is a good test for him. I expect him to play better. I expect the offense to be better. How can you say that?

Because it's because of what I just said. How can you say you expect them to play better? You just said, this is the best defense they played all year. I know. I know that. Why would you expect them? Well, did you miss the other part of what I just said? They're not playing the Patriots. Did I just?

They're not playing some other stiff team. They're playing a team that has beaten the Giants in the two games they've played by the score for 89 to 17. I know. 89 points they scored against the Giants in two games. We got 26. The reason I believe it is because of what I said before. which apparently you weren't listening to. You just focused on the fact that this was the best defense.

Well, you play a team that's good. Well, I'll tell you what. You know what? Even Seattle's defense wasn't bad. Atlanta's defense wasn't bad. Actually, it's a pretty good defense. Philly's defense is certainly good up front. New England is a well-coached defense,

but they were missing a lot of pieces. But, you know, he went into Seattle last week, Tommy, and played a game. He went into Philly. that first time and played a really good game. I, yeah, I'm not backing off of it. I mean, it would be nice if Eric B. Enemy would line up somebody beside Charles Leno to help him block Micah Parsons, if that's where Parsons lines up.

I don't know what took him so long to give Leno help yesterday. That, you know, anyway, Sam's the story the rest of the way. Do whatever you want to do with Ron and Jack. Have at it. I'm looking forward to Josh in January. Josh in January is what's important. What he does now, unless you think complacency is creating a culture problem or there's some sort of toxic issue.

I'm okay if he doesn't do anything. Sam is the story. We got to find out, or it's not we, the new general manager is going to need. six more exams, six more tests on tape to see if he's the guy. Because Tommy, they are trending right now towards a top five pick in the, and yesterday's loss was good in the fact that now they are just a game back of the number four spot overall. Currently, they would be the seventh, they'd hold the seventh selection in the first round. And God damn it, are there some quarterbacks in this draft?

Yes, there are. So, even I could say. see that. I mean, good God, Jaden Daniels. Jaden Daniels is my favorite player in college football in a long time. The performance he put on, people will say, well, it was Georgia State. Okay, well, last week it was Florida. The week before that, before he got hurt in the first half, it was in Tuscaloose against Bama. I know what Bo Nix did against Arizona State in the first half. I do. This guy was responsible for eight touchdowns. Georgia State, by the way, for those that don't follow college football, is better than Arizona State. Arizona State's one of the worst power five teams in America.

But Daniels, I mean, Caleb Williams, I'm having a little bit of some reservations about Caleb Williams. A lot of stuff going on there right now with him. Yes, there is. There's some stuff going to. But the talent is. But the talent is. The quarterback position is this.

And this is what people can't seem to grasp. There's no reason. to coronate this guy now. I think we've been saying that all year. Yes. I don't know. I think it's, again, the loud screamers on the internet primarily. I think most reasonable people understand that it's been up and down.

There were three really good games in a row, and they were the most encouraging games. And then yesterday was not good. He was not the, again, far from the worst of yesterday. but, you know, all you got to do is go out there and not hand the game to the other team. And that's what the offense did yesterday. Handed it to him on a silver platter. Defense wasn't very good either. All right.

What else? I want to get to my game take. I'm sure you've got some things to add. And we will do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Pay attention. Here's Kevin's Game Take. The game take brought to you by My Booky. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It's actually my favorite holiday. Good food, boosted bets, and turkey day parlays for all. This year you can celebrate by stuffing your pockets with My Bookie's biggest sports book bonus ever. Listen carefully. This is the one they were giving away after Washington started 2 and 0 for the first time in how many years it was. They're giving another one. 110% deposit match on your first deposit.

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They're going to give you $1,100. All right, Tommy. What I liked, what I didn't like, and a few other observations. I want to start just with this. Like, yesterday was one of those games in which you can't come out of that game saying, oh, the defense, that was the problem. Oh, the offense, that was the, oh, the coach. It was everybody.

Everybody sucked yesterday. I mean, this was equal opportunity offender day by the Washington. commanders. They were horrendous across the board, but there were a couple of things that made my list of things that I liked. And I'll start with, my God, they ran the football yesterday successfully. They really did. It might be the only time we say that this year, but they rushed for 174 yards. That is, that's a big, big day rushing the football. Even if you take Sam Howe's rushing yardage out, they still rushed for a season high, 139. I thought Brian Robinson, Jr., I thought he was as good as he's been,

and he's had some really good games. I thought his vision, his cutback ability, his tackle breaking. I thought it was as good as he's looked since he's been here. 73 yards on 17 carries for him. I've liked Chris Rodriguez going back to preseason. I think he's a really good runner. He was 6 for 43, 7.2 yards per carry. He's got 20 carries in total on the year, 104 yards.

That's 5.2 yards per. Of course, he had the fumble yesterday, which wasn't very good. Derek Gore had a meaningless 23-yard run on the final play of the game, which added to the overall yardage. But again, that would have taken that out, and it's still the best rushing day of the year. I wanted to mention this, too, as it relates to the rushing attack, and I don't know if I'm going to go back and look for this,

because I really don't want to go back and watch any of this game again. But it seemed to me that when Dexter Lawrence, who was an absolute monster of a player, when he left the game, that's when they really went after it with the run. And if that's true, and it could have been just maybe I noticed it on a few plays that he was out where Robinson Jr. or Rodriguez had some big runs. But if that was the plan when he came out, because they rotate a lot, that was smart. the rushing attack on the list of things that I liked. On the list of things that I liked, nine sacks,

but I put it with a question mark. I'm going to put it on the list of things that were good from the game because nine sacks is nine sacks. But Tommy, I think you, even after your prep for your colonoscopy, I think you could have gotten a hand on Tommy DeVito, how long he held onto the ball yesterday. Seriously. Like, he threw it really well when he threw it and he had time to throw it and he decided to

throw it. But I think half of those sacks at least were just because he did what Sam was doing for a lot of the early part of the year. By the way, they came out and tried to run Quick Game too because they knew that this guy was prone to holding on to the ball. And yet, even on Quick game, he got sacks. Like there were times he should have unloaded it. You could see that there were people open, and he had checkdowns.

But I'm going to put nine sacks on here. Did you know, by the way, five sacks in the first quarter, it is the most, it's tied for the most by a team in the first quarter in NFL history. They tied an NFL record on defense yesterday. The six sacks in the first half, most for this franchise since 1994, they've, they've, They had seven different players record at least one sack. That's the most since 1990. And the nine sacks in a game were the most since week two in 2014 against Jacksonville when they had 10 sacks against Chad Henney and the Jags.

But how about this? Because I would imagine somebody said to themselves at some point, when's the last time a team had nine sacks and lost a game? Well, I saw Barnwell for ESPN stats and information send this out. And that is that since the turn of the century, there have been 43, 44 games total before yesterday, where there were nine sacks or more in a game, and the team that had nine sacks or more, one, 43 of the 44 games until yesterday, now it's. 43 out of 45. The record since

2000 for a team with 9 plus sacks, 43 and 2 now. You know, it's because they turned it over six times. It's a weird game. Nine sacks and then six turnovers. Not only nine sacks, but nine sacks on a day that I would have actually said to you, I didn't even think the pass rush pressure was that great. Weird the way that works.

Lastly, on the things that I like the list from the game, shortlist rush offense, nine sacks. And their rush defense in the first half was exceptional. Like I'm reaching, I understand, because of what the Giants did in the second half. That's what I'm saying specifically the first half. It's the first time in franchise history that a Washington team has held an opponent to zero or minus rushing yards in a half. They held them to zero. Sequin Barclay had six carries for minus two yards in the first half. And Washington actually this year against the run has been pretty stout at times. And they were in the first half.

It changed in the second half. It did. I thought specifically in the first half, I actually really, and I know I'm a fan of Duran Payne. I thought Duran was a real force in the first half of that football game. I thought some of the sacks happened because of pain. I thought some of the run stops and tackles happened because of pain and Allen to a certain degree. But that's it on the list of things that I liked. What didn't I like?

A lot. Start with this, six turnovers. Three interceptions, three fumbles. Could have been more. They were lucky to recover Brian Robinson Jr.'s fumble before the touchdown that made it 24 to 19 in the fourth quarter. Hal had an easy interception dropped by Pinnock. You can't win football games at almost any level if you are minus six in the turnover margin. They had five on offense. They had one on special teams. The six turnovers led to 24 points directly, 24 to the 31. Unless you're going to get four of them back, which they didn't get any back, you know, you can't win with six turnovers. Next up on the list of things that I didn't like is the defense, once again, just allows way too many big plays. There were eight plays yesterday. The

Giants had. The Giants had eight plays of 20 plus yards. They were among the worst in the league in explosive plays. If not for Washington, they'd be dead last in explosive plays, but they have produced a lot of them in their two games and their two wins against Washington. And it was every which way. It was Barkley on the wheel route. It was slate and wide open on a coverage bust. I just can't believe how many coverage, you know, busts or miscommunications they've had. I mean, Barclay, I just mentioned, had minus two yards rushing at the half. And he finished with 83 yards. That means he had 85 yards in the second half on eight carries.

He averaged over 10 yards per carry and had a 36-yard run on that pitch sweep. It's like when they decided to run outside, they got yards. It's been the problem for this defense. It's really been the story of the year for Washington. Big explosive plays. They're dead last in the league. It's those plays that have absolutely killed their opportunities to win games more than anything else this year. Special teams, bad day for the special teams. Joey Sly missed a P.A.T. for the special teams. Joey Sly missed a P. second straight game. The snapping was a problem again. He made the field goal that made it 14 to 12 on another bad Cameron Cheesman snap. Pringle fumbled the second half kickoff return. It was a pretty good return before he fumbled. Crowder had zero yards on four punt returns and made a very,

very questionable decision to pick up a ball that was bouncing around with giant coverage guys all around him. Not a good day for special teams. Coaching staff is next on my list. This is a no order really other than turnovers being number one. The coaching staff, I don't care what Ron Rivera says. When you turn it over six times, when you look

when you once again against that team give up the explosives that they gave up on defense, you got out coach. You've been completely outwitted. You and your entire staff by Brian Dable, Wink-Martindale

and Company in the two games that you played them. Now, it wasn't as bad game plan-wise on offense. They came out with a lot of quick game again. They actually had some really good plays offensively. I'll get to that in a moment. But, you know, they got out-coached. And then lastly, on the list of things that I didn't like, and I'll get to what some of you believe was a major issue again with clock management. I don't think it was a major issue again. But there were some issues. But Sam Howell and the offense are on the list of things I didn't like. I think the first. 403 yards of offense in this game were a bit misleading.

131 of those yards came, you know, late in the fourth quarter when they were down two scores initially. They ran it well at times for sure, but it looked like the Giants were kind of soft there at the end. But they weren't shut down by the giant defense yesterday. They had too many mistakes. Clearly, the turnovers, as we've already discussed, but there were a lot of drops yesterday, too, three by my count.

Diami Brown had another. big drop. I mean, it was a third and one. They ended up getting it on the next play. The pressure on Sam was constant. Lenno Jornt Jr. I mean, this was, like, again, I didn't, the play calling and the plan against Wink Martindale was definitely different than the first go-round, so I appreciated that. But what are you doing letting Fibito just completely run by Leno Jr. without help consistently? That's not a good plan going in, and he didn't adjust. until much later in the game. Look, it's hard to have any plan for Dexter Lawrence.

He's just that good. He's a top three. He may be the best pure nose in the game. He's just, like, they did double him. There were multiple times where they doubled him, and he still disrupted the pocket. But look, overall, 19 points against a giant defense that had allowed 79 the last two games

is pathetic. Specific to Howl, and I'll finish up with this before I get to just a couple of other quick things in terms of other observations. I think Hal, well, I'll start with the grade. I won't bury the lead. I've given him A's the last three weeks. He was a C-C-minus yesterday. It wasn't a failing grade for Sam Hal yesterday. You know, the big plays that they allowed, the coaching, there were other bigger issues than Sam Hal yesterday.

But again, like I mentioned, and I think Aiden O'Connell is actually a good kind of example to hold up and say, super young quarterback, super inexperienced quarterback playing a bad team, and he didn't throw three picks, and he didn't give up four sacks. He gave up zero and zero. And they beat the Raiders, the Raiders beat him 30 to six. It was the same giant team, basically. And there had to be some recognition of, we're not playing a great team here. If I don't make big mistakes, we're going to probably win the game. Now, he didn't fumble three times. You know, he didn't do that. There were some good throws that I actually really liked in this game.

First of all, well, let me start with this. I love his mobility. Like, he's not the fastest, you know, running quarterback in the game. He's not the most elusive. But he's got really good vision when he runs. He's got good quickness and enough speed. And he's tough, too. He's a physical runner.

The first drive of the game, it's a three-step drop, immediate pressure because Lawrence beats Larson, and he runs for a first down. You get to, in terms of his mobility, where's the other really good long run? The touchdown run. I mean, he's getting bounced around like a pinball, but his toughness gets him in. By the way, on that play, I didn't really have a problem with what Xavier McKinney did. I mean, the play looked like it had not been whistled dead, and maybe it did, but it was still. too loud. Sam's didn't think he got in. He's still playing that. McKinney doesn't really egregiously rough him or take a cheap shot. He's trying to keep him from getting into the end zone.

So all of the stuff that followed in booting Samuel, look, I love that Leno Jr. and Samuel came to his defense, and a lot of players did. That's a good sign. Tommy and I remember when Jeff George went to the turf and nobody came to pick him up. But that was a really, that was an exceptional run. There was a third and four against, again, a Dexter Lawrence immediate pressure, and he scrambled for 26 yards. He worked off schedule on a throw to Bates in the second half that I really liked. He had some really good plays. There were some excellent throws in this game by Sam again. Quick slant to Terry on their second drive for 12 yards.

He beats the blitz on play action and gets it off to Logan Thomas. for a big gain on their third drive of the game. My favorite throw was a real progression throw. Third and four, it was late in the first half. It was right before, maybe a player or two before the touchdown run that made it 14 to 9. He goes through two progressions and finds Terry on a 10-plus yard catch on a third and four to keep the chains moving. I thought that was really well done. he had the touchdown pass to Dotson.

I actually thought the throw was a little bit late. It's a good throw. Don't get me wrong, but I actually thought it was a little bit late. I could be wrong on that. He made the throw. He got there and Dotson created the space. Had a really good fourth down check to Robinson Jr. for a first down, you know, on that last drive before they made it 24 to 19. In fact, that looks like a plan play to me. I've seen that more with Bienemy recently. I've seen kind of these planned checkdowns with blockers ahead of them. You don't see that a lot in the NFL.

You see checkdowns everywhere, but it's more of like it's the play to hit the checkdown, but you got blockers in front. There were bad plays, obviously. I'm not going to completely take them off the hook for any of these interceptions. But the first one I actually think was not his worst throw, but that's not the read there. You want to take a shot,

but you got to get off that when you see the coverage it was there, and it wasn't a good throw by any stretch of the imagination. I thought that the throw to Pinoc that he dropped on the interception was one of the worst throws Sam made. And just bad cover, bad read,

bad throw. It looked like he was starting to press a little bit, you know, at that point, because, you know, they hadn't scored or whatever it was seven to three or whatever it was at the time. There was a zone read, I think it was a zone read where he handed it to Robinson Jr. And he got stopped by Aishon Robinson. I thought he could have kept that.

I think there are some times where he passes on zone reads, if there are actual zone reads. The pick that he threw to Darnay Holmes, look, there was pressure. His arm got hit a little bit, was that ball fluttered up into the air. But, you know, you got to probably get further out or you got to eat that one in particular spot. And then the last one is actually, to be honest with you, it's a terrible play by Sam because he doesn't step up into the pocket to try to create more time, but he can't take a sack there either, where the game is basically over. And so he's trying to get it over the head of Logan Thomas out of bounds, but he just isn't able to do it and it gets returned for a touchdown.

CC minus for Sam, not his worst grade. I mean, I think I failed him against Buffalo. I think it was like a D minus or D against the Giants, and it wasn't very good against Arizona either. A lot of issues that were much bigger than Sam, but it was not his best effort. Lastly, just a couple of quick observations. The end of the first half, like, if you're not going to really try to score, don't run a play on third and 20.

Don't call a timeout. Just let the clock run out. It was third and 20. The problem with third and 20 with this team is third and 10, can be a problem. Third and 11 can be a problem. Third and long was not a problem for Tommy DeVito yesterday. He had a third and eight, third and 13, and third and ten in the first half. But I would just let the clock run out. You're getting the ball to start the second half. Either be aggressive and throw it down the field or try to set up a fourth down that's makeable

and call the timeout sooner or don't call the time out and let the clock run out. And as far as at the end of the game, you don't take a time out with two minutes and six seconds to go. I've explained this many times before. You want your timeouts before the two-minute warning, but once it gets to about 206, you got to let it go to the two-minute warning. Why? Because you give the opponent a free opportunity

to throw the football for the first down without any punishment of the clock stopping because it's going to stop anyway. So if your last timeouts at 212, they can't throw it on the next play if they're trying to make you burn your timeouts. They're going to run the football. because, you know, if they throw it and it's an incomplete pass,

there's a huge penalty for throwing an incomplete pass in that spot. At 206, it's like, don't call the time out. You do save some time if you get the stop, but you give them free license to throw the football, which they did. They dropped back to throw it, and then he scrambled and got nine yards, and they ended up punning on fourth and one.

But that's not smart. And then at the very end of the game, you had the completion to Crowder for the first down with 42 seconds left. You got to hit the timeout right there. And I know that that's your last timeout, but you don't want to burn 13 seconds. You only burn 13 seconds when you're out of timeouts and you have no choice and you're hustling to get up to the line of scrimmage to spike it or to run a play. You have a choice there.

You've picked up a first down. You should bang the time out there at 42 seconds. Instead, you didn't snap it until there were 29 seconds left, and you got a false start on Leno Jr. And you had to burn the time out to save the 10-second, you know, clock runoff. And that's not the worst error I've ever seen, but it's not, like, you just, you have to bang it at 42 seconds after that first down with a play in the field of play. And they didn't, and they ended up burning it anyway, and they didn't have any left.

and they had wasted 13 seconds. Other than that, how's the hot water doing in the locker room? Oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah, I got one thing. Yeah. One thing I wanted to add to the whole big, a bigger picture kind of thing, when we're talking about Sam Howe and we're talking about Eric B. enemy,

I think this is an important consideration. Terry McLaurin has zero games with 100 yards catching. Ben told me the last time was last year against the Giants in the game that they tied. He had 400-yard-plus games last year with Taylor Heineke as his quarterback. This year, zero. Yeah.

You're paying that guy to be your number one receiver. We all agree. should, given the right situation, he should be a top receiver in this league, not necessarily a top five, but arguably a top 15, okay?

And you've got, you've got to get him the ball more. Yeah, and the reason why, like, so there's a disconnect, I think, for a lot of people on that. It's like, how is it that Terry McClorn isn't way up there in, yards, you know, in reception yards, in catches.

When Washington's been, you know, at the end of last week, they had thrown for more yards than anybody in the league. I did try to explain to everybody that they had played one more game than a lot of other teams. Like, yards per game passing, I think they're now after yesterday, 36, 9, 11th in the league. Overall, gross yards, they're still fifth, but again, you know, There are several teams behind them that have only played 10 games. The Chiefs have only played nine, okay, at this point.

The Eagles have only played nine at this point before tonight's game. But still, they've thrown for a lot of yards, and yet here's something, Tommy. I'm going to pull this up because I think it's actually, it says that they've spread the ball around a lot, which they have. I know. They've really spread it around. But here's, okay, in terms of reception, All right. Terry McClearn is number one on the team with 56.

He's 17th in the league in receptions. In yards this year, reception yards, Terry McLaren leads a team with 644, 26th in the league. So yeah, it's because they have spread it around. I think there were 11 guys yesterday that caught balls. Something like 11? Something like that? But Tommy, you know what?

This isn't an offense that feeds, you know, one guy. It doesn't seem to be that kind of an offense. By the way, I'm okay with it. I don't care about one guy getting all the touches if you're moving the football and scoring points. I also, I love Terry. Terry's a good receiver. He's a number one receiver. but I have said this for a while now,

and I've gotten a lot of pushback from a lot of you. He's not anywhere near that upper echelon of the best receivers in the game. He might be at the bottom of Tier 2, which puts him in that, you know, 10 to 15 range, but he's not an elite takeover a game receiver. He just isn't. And some of you would say, well, that's because they haven't had the quarterback. I mean, I guess we won't know, but they've thrown the ball a lot this year.

And Eric B. Enemy hasn't sensed that Terry is a takeover the game kind of player. What else do you have? That's all. That's what I have got. Dallas is a 10.5 point favorite on Thanksgiving Day. I am 4-0 with Washington in the smell test this year. I had Arizona. I had the Giants twice, and I had Washington against Seattle. I can tell you right now, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have Washington on Thursday at Dallas. Nobody's going to be on them.

And the line actually opened at 11, and it's down to 10.5. So there's a little bit of early sharp money on Washington, plus the points at Dallas. Hmm. could the Pilgrims and Sam Howell save Ron or Jack from an in-season termination? All right, I've got a couple of things I want to say about Ron Rivera. We've got the big game tonight, the game of the year tonight. We'll weigh in on that a little bit. And I have a brief story about taking my Spanish cousin to the Ravens game Thursday.

All right. I haven't heard about that. I want to weigh in on what was a pretty rough weekend for Maryland sports fans. We will do that right after these words from a few of our sponsors. You've talked a lot about growth overall. Does a game like this make you question how much things are growing? Not necessarily. But when you have games at home with teams like the Bears or the Giants now twice, teams at this point...

You know, no matter what my answer is, it's going to come out and people are going to say it's an excuse. So we're just going to take the responsibility. We're going to show up tomorrow. We're going to get prepared. And we're going to get ready to play Dallas because we've got a very short week, okay? That was Ron Rivera in his presser after the game yesterday. Most of the answers were pretty brief. He was ready to...

Even he's getting tired of listening to his pitch. I know. Yeah. I mean, it's even starting to sound kind of repetitive to him. I've got some thoughts on... Yes, it is. I've got some thoughts, more thoughts on Ron coming up. But Tommy, tell us about Shelley's.

Well, today, Monday, it's a special day at Shelly's, because they got Cubans there today. Nice. Cuban cigars, you ask? No. No, not Cuban cigars, because Cuban cigars are ridiculously illegal in America. Oh, that's right. They have great Dominican cigars.

Okay, so this is a sandwich. This is a sandwich. Yes. Okay. Yes, what they do have is a Cuban burger, one-half pound of Shelley's custom blend on a butter-coasted roll with Cuban-toasted porkloin slice. Okay, swift cheese, slice pickle, and Dijon mayo served with fries. So they've got a Cuban burger, not a Cuban cigar, as they're special today at Shelley. That sounds cool.

Okay, they have the best cigars that you can find. anywhere in D.C. And if they had Cubans in this country, Shellies would have them. But instead, they've got Cuban food. You can find out more by going to shelley's backroom.com online. Tell me real quickly about the Ravens on Thursday night and taking your guy from Madrid.

Okay. I have a cousin Joaquin is a huge NFL fan. I mean, he can't devour enough. NFL. And he's very well versed. He knows a lot of stuff from his obsession with it, but he had never been to a game before. So I said, why don't you fly over? You know, I had been there for a month and spent a lot of time with him in August. Why don't you come over to a game here in America? I'll take you to a game. So we settled on the Ravens game on Thursday night. They were playing the Bengals. It was a big game. And he had, he had an unbelievably

great time. First of all, the home team won. He didn't have a rooting interest in either team. So in terms of atmosphere, it was fun that the Ravens won for him. He was overwhelmed by the pre-game festivities. Not just the tailgating, but

they have a thing called Ravens Walk where it's a long, long walk full of vendors and live bands and radio broadcasts going live. You know, it was a prime time game. So they went out of their way to make it a big deal. Okay. But he said, we have nothing like this at Real Madrid games. Really?

Specifically, they don't have tailgating? No. No. And the whole, the whole festivity bands playing live, you know, all that stuff. He said he was impressed with that. And the end-game experience, I'm going to urge you, if you're a Washington commander's fan and you've never been to a Ravens home game, don't go. Because it'll be depressing how good it is comparatively. Yes, you'll see that there's a whole other way that this product can be presented and it will just destroy you.

Because they're in-game presentation. Again, prime time, so they pulled out all the stuff. stops was amazing. And the crowd was so pumped up, so loud that the Bengals had to waste two timeouts and had at least three false starts because of the noise of the crowd. It just stinks that you had this highly anticipated matchup of a game. And if he understood and follows the game, he knew that this was a big, big game in the NFL this year. And it turned out to be just a poorly played, you know, injury riddled, penalty-filled game that had no rhythm to it. And I talked about this on Friday show, Tommy. Man, I don't know if

anything's going to happen to Cincinnati, but something should happen to Cincinnati because this guy was clearly compromised coming into the game and they didn't report it. And in this day and age, you can't get away with doing that now with legalized sports. betting. You just can't. Can't do that. That's a big no-no. You can't do that. One other thing about Joaquin, when we were coming in, I had electronic tickets, and I had a little

problem reading them at first. So I said to the guy, I said, you've got to let him in. He came all the way from Spain. This is his first NFL game. Well, supervisor heard that, came over, made a big deal. They brought him to customer service. They gave him a certificate. Oh, great.

first NFL game and a button, you know, and they just really pulled out the stop. So it was, even though it was a poor we play game, it was great for him. And the other thing, specifically about the football, you know, Lamar Jackson doesn't see the field very well. He really doesn't. He has a hard time finding receivers sometimes. I was not impressed with his play in person on that Thursday night. Yeah, there are games with Lamar Jackson where I'm like, oh, my God, he is so special. And then there are other games where you're like, how didn't he see that? How didn't he throw that?

How didn't he complete that? You know, whatever it is. All right, well, that's good. It sounds like it was a great experience. All right, I want to just real quickly. maybe not super quickly. I just want to talk about Ron for a second because going back to what we opened up with,

if they cut them loose now versus later, it is totally justified. There are some things about Ron that maybe I should say for when he's fired, but I got into this with somebody on the air today, and it just

kind of, it stuck with me. Like he just said over, and over again, Ron was a loser when they hired him. He's a loser now. He came here, a loser. He's going to leave a loser. First of all, that's not true. Ron at Carolina was 13 games over 500, and in eight and a half years took four teams to the postseason and won to the Super Bowl and was a two-time, remember when Dan said this, two-time NFL coach of the year. Now, do I think he was Lombardi or Gibbs or Walsh or Paul Brown, that was for Tommy, or Landry or Shula? No. I don't think that. But at the time, I said they actually outdid what I thought they could do in hiring Ron Rivera. I always appreciated Carolina's teams. They were tough. They were hard-nosed. I always felt like they were well-coached. And the first two losing seasons were developmental years, people. I mean, they drafted Cam Newton number one overall. They went six in ten, seven and nine. And they had three straight playoff trips with an MVP season for the quarterback.

in a Super Bowl trip in there. So, you know, when you draft a quarterback number one overall and you play him right from the jump as Carolina did, you're given a little bit of developmental time, which is what he had with Cam. But whatever. The point is, Ron's been a good man. He's been a competent head coach. He has not been that here.

He's been a good man here, for sure. You know, but I also, and I know that you and I've talked about this before, we all understood more than even he did, that coming here and working for this organization, he was doomed before it ever started. You know, nobody has ever succeeded here in the last 24 years. And we're talking about coaches with much better resumes than Ron's. Okay, Marty and Joe and Mike all came and went and looked much worse when they left than when they came. Like Tommy has said before, although I don't know if you said it exactly this way, but something similar.

Working here is not a job, it's a sentence. And that's essentially what's been going on here for everybody that's come here. You know, the reverse car wash line about coming to Washington isn't some throwaway line. It's been true. You come here clean, you leave dirty. Now, they get paid well when they come here. but he's done his time. He's done his sentence. It's time for him to go. I just, I don't think anybody should think any less of him the person. He did his time. He did the best he could.

He was working for Dan Fing Snyder. COVID happened. There was investigation after investigation. One of them was his. He hired Ryan Vermillion. Okay, I get it. He had a personal health crisis to deal with, and he got through that. He had a shrinking fan base that literally had shrunk to like a third of what it was. He had a garbage stadium to deal with. I think looking back at these three and a half years, he actually had less of a chance to succeed than any of the people that came here before him. But it's time. The record says it's time. It's not been anywhere near good enough. He's not been a good coach here. He's not been a good GM here. the losses of the bad losses to the giants in Cleveland and the bears, you know,

and then what's been really kind of, to me, almost disingenuous, really, the recent attempts he's made to distance himself from, you know, important things like one loss record and try to divert everybody's attention to this ridiculous narrative that this season's all been about Sam and the development of Sam. And, you know, he's been trying to communicate. that, you know, it's not about, don't look over here at the loss to the bears. Look over here. We've got a young quarterback.

It's incredibly. It's a deflection shield. Yeah. He's been ducking under the cover of Sam, and it's transparent, and nobody's been falling for it, not to mention the fact that it's totally premature to do it. And it reeks of desperation. It reeks of somebody trying to save his job. And then the other part of that is just,

this implication, this wish or this desire that he wants to be remembered. He's already spoken in terms of what he wants to be remembered for, which is the culture and the quarterback. Like, you know, the line before the season, he'll be vindicated if, you know, he's not here when the team wins a Super Bowl with 40 of his 53 players and the legitimate quarterback he left. Like he actually said, I'll feel vindicated. send me my Super Bowl ring.

Well, the 40 of the 53 and the quarterback had two chances to beat the Giants, and they're offer. I mean, this is a team that's got three wins over Washington twice and the Cardinals. Ron's Super Bowl roster, which I have liked the roster. I admit it. I like the roster. I thought it was in better shape than it's been in a long time coming into this season. but this head coach can take credit maybe for a culture that's changed to a certain degree.

You know, when he got here, God rest his soul, but you had a quarterback here that was the owner's choice. You had some bad dudes on the roster. You know, he got rid of people that didn't want to be here like Quentin Dunbar and Trent Williams, you know. He didn't want to put up with the bullshit. I think there was a mistake, but whatever. I think there, you know, I think he's a man of high character and he's brought some culture to the organization. But if, you know, the taking credit for a quarterback that there's no credit to take yet for anyway is ridiculous. And nobody's going to remember Ron Rivera for bringing Sam Howell to Washington if Sam Hal actually works out.

Because Taylor Heineke deserves more credit than Ron does. We all know what happened. But anyway, I guess I'm saying that because I think there is a. a chance that maybe something does happen this week. But whatever, I'm done on him. Yeah, I'm not going to attack him personally because from all accounts, like you said, he appears to be a decent guy who's been through a lot here. Yeah. I think his coaching Carolina was a bit of a charade. I disagree with you about his coaching Carolina.

I don't think he suddenly became a bad coach. I don't think he was a particularly great coach there. He wasn't great. Nobody ever said he was great. Nobody ever said he was great. Okay. Okay, well, with all the things that he said about all the issues he faced here, if you didn't go into this job in 2020 with your eyes wide open, then you only have

any, you only have yourself to blame. That's fair. But there was a lot more that you couldn't have seen with your eyes when you came here. No, but, but there was enough. I know. I know. There was enough there. But it was a lot more than Mike had to face or Jay had to face or Joe had to face or anybody else. But there was still enough to say this is, this is not going to be good for me. There will be other jobs that will be better for me than this job. Yeah, you know, we still don't know what kind, I mean, we know we got control over the roster. We know that ultimately,

because Dan was so consumed with investigation after investigation. He actually probably had more autonomy than any coach Dan's had, although the Haskins decision was a bad decision, you know, to say, you know, let's give Dan what he wants. Let's see if Dwayne works out. We can't get, you know, Joe Burrow anyway, and we don't think much of Tua or Justin Herbert, but certainly in hindsight the Herbert should have been the pick.

But again, I don't want to beat a dead horse. here. Nobody said that he was great in Carolina, but he was a competent head coach. And to discuss him as a loser, which you didn't do, or to discuss him as an incompetent head coach. And the one thing I would specifically disagree with you, I think he's been a totally different coach since he got here. He is much more of a CEO coach. He admitted that because of his other responsibilities and because of everything that was going on in the organization, he had to become sort of the face of the organization and speak to a lot of the non-football stuff that was going on. And I don't think he's been the type of coach that he was at Carolina.

I think he's been much more hands-off, much more delegate CEO, and that has not worked out well for him. And yeah, I think it's been a much worse run of coaching and otherwise here in Washington than it was in Carolina. Who do you like tonight? Are you going to watch a game tonight? Yeah, I'm going to watch the game. in an angry mode, because I'll be so damn hungry.

I like the Eagles. I kind of like the Chiefs, but I kind of like the under the most. Three and three smell test over the weekend. I'm sorry, not three and three. Five and five smell test. Five and five? Something like that. I was 500 this weekend.

I don't have a pick tonight, but I kind of like the under. I think I'm going to play the under personally. Yeah, it's an interesting game. There is some big NFL news today. the Jets are finally going to pinch Zach Wilson. I mean, this was a bad, bad decision by the Jets after Aaron Rogers got hurt, not to be aggressive going after an NFL quarterback to play on that team. Because that team defensively is so effing good.

And they're going to start Tim Boyle at quarterback. meantime, the 49ers lost Tufanga. They're all pro safety yesterday in the game against Tampa. That is a big loss for them. And the Browns are going to stick with Dorian Thompson Robinson at quarterback, even though they signed Joe Flacco to the practice squad, and they'll elevate, I think, Flacco to back up quarterback. And Taylor Heineke is not going to start a quarterback coming out of the break.

They're going to go back to Desmond Ritter in Atlanta. Taylor got hurt in that last Falcons game, but he also had thrown for like 45 yards through three quarters when he did get hurt. I want to finish up with Maryland real quickly. They lost Friday night in hoops. They lost Saturday to Michigan and football. Before I get to some quick thoughts on that, I wanted to mention Window Nation 86690 Nation or Windonation.com.

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Villanova's won a lot of those recruiting battles against Maryland over the years. And, you know, it was a game in which Maryland wanted to kind of establish some, you know, credibility within the AAU ranks, within the high school ranks, et cetera, from a recruiting standpoint. More than that, you know, after losing two games in Asheville last week. they needed to get a win, and they didn't get one. They were absolutely horrible, and a 57 to 40 loss where the score was not even reflective of how badly they got beat. I mean, I for a while did not think they were going to get to 30 points, let alone 40. Fortunately, a little run at the end kept them from getting beat 50-something to 30-something. It was a bad loss for sure.

They played decent defense in the second half, but the game was over essentially by about the 10-minute mark in the first half. Kevin Willard's got a hole to dig out of. He's got a team that's really, really struggling offensively in particular. He did figure out some of that stuff last year when they went through the same kinds of things. It's November. So I'm not, you know, I'm not happy about getting absolutely throttled by Villanova. but I also realize it's November college basketball, and there's a long, long road ahead.

We'll see what happens. The Maryland football game on Saturday against Michigan, they had a legit shot. I mean, I know that they had a legit shot against Ohio State last year and Ohio State a few years ago and they haven't been able to break through in those games. And that's a fair criticism. You know, they talk about, you know, breaking through

and this is the year to set the standard. And they lost Ohio State, even though they played them very tight through three quarters. And they had the ball down by 29-24 against Michigan. I thought they made some mistakes. They called a bad timeout from their own one-yard line to avoid a delay a game. That was not smart. After the safety, they squib kicked it.

I have no idea what they were thinking in that particular case. They should have kicked it deep. They had two timeouts left, and there was three minutes and 38 seconds left in the game. why they decided to give Michigan the ball in Maryland territory, that made no sense at all. In fact, before the safety, which I didn't think was a good call, I think they should have gotten the benefit of the doubt on the intentional grounding. I said to my son, if they don't get out of this hole, they should take an intentional safety anyway to flip the field with four minutes to go, three and a half minutes to go. They got this safety on an intentional grounding call, which to me wasn't the worst thing in the world in that moment. And then they squib kicked it.

That made no sense. They lost 3124. This is a, you know, this is a team that has some players on it. I mean, they were down early and they came back and nobody has scored more than, I think, the most points Michigan had given up all year. They hadn't given up a point in the third quarter. They gave up 14. No one had scored more than 13, I think it was, against Michigan. 15.

Penn State, Maryland put up 24 and had a chance. But, you know, sets up Ohio State Michigan on Saturday for all the Big Ten marbles and another massive Ohio State Michigan showdown. I actually cannot wait for that game. That should be great. and Michigan in Ann Arbor Saturday is a three and a half point favorite over Ohio State. I've heard a lot of people that like Ohio State. Maybe Michigan not looking good against Maryland and Ohio State looking good against, I don't know, maybe Michigan's the play.

We'll see. All right, anything else, Tommy? I got nothing else for you today, boss. I'll be back tomorrow. Have a good day. From the Washington 24. DeVito fires looking for Berkeley. End zone. He's got it. Touchdown.

Faked to Berkeley. And now DeVito connects with Darius Slayton. And Slayton makes a move, takes it into the end zone. He went around Kendall Fuller for a Giants touchdown. 40-yard pass play. DeVito throws, caught. Barclay, reaches across for a Giants touchdown. His second today. Thank you.