The Kevin Sheehan Show - You Like That!

Episode Date: January 6, 2020

Kevin opens with the Vikings 26-20 overtime win in New Orleans. Yes, some gloating about Kirk too. NFL analyst Ross Tucker joined the show to talk about all four NFL playoff games. Kevin broke them down one by one in detail as well. Kevin finished up with all of the Redskins' news from the weekend. <p> </p><p>Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a></p> Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You want it. You need it. It's what everyone's talking about. The Kevin Sheehan Show. Now here's Kevin. Third and goal from the four. Kirk takes the snap. Looks right. Fade left. End zone. And it is caught. Touchdown. Bonjour, San Francisco and Horroble, New Orleans Saints. And with that, Kirk Cousins had engineered his 14th fourth quarter or overtime game winning drive. And some of you thought it was the first time he had done it. Aaron's here. I'm here.

Ross Tucker is going to join us here very shortly to go over all four NFL playoff games and they were great this weekend. All four of them coming down to the final two minutes. She had two overtime games, including the Minnesota win in New Orleans to knock out Drew Brees and the Saints. You know, those lazy, incorrect narratives that some of you don't even know are incorrect, and by the way, that's what makes them lazy, have been following Kirk Cousin's career since the day he took over in 2015 as a starter in Washington. You've been annoying

in this conversation that we've had over the last several years because you've been incorrect so often. And yes, I'll admit up front, I've been a little annoying as well in this conversation. I've never taken it personally. I hope you haven't either, but I am going to gloat a little bit today because that was, despite all of the other fourth quarter game-winning drives he's had, and again, yesterday was his 14th, not his first. Yesterday was the moment. Even I can admit that. It came in the biggest of stakes games on the road against an opponent that was an eight-point favorite, the biggest favorite of the weekend were the Saints in a place that's very difficult to win against a team that's been very good this year, a 13-win team with a Hall of Fame.

quarterback and Kirk Cousins played well. He did play well. I heard a lot of conversation during the game, you know, on Twitter and with various friends who were texting me that said Kirk looks tight. He's not playing well. And I'm like, what are you talking about? The man converted eight third down throws in the game for conversions that moved the sticks. Was he spectacular? No. Did the defense lead Minnesota to that win? Absolutely. Was Dalvin Cook sensational in the first half? He was. 12 carries 10 yards in the second half. They did not have a running game in the second half. Did Mike Zimmer call an exceptional game defensively? He did. Did he get way too conservative late? I think he did. And I thought we were headed towards a loss. And then I'd have to come in here with my, you know, Aaron, what I do when Kirk loses, my list of excuses. All of the reasons why he lost. And I will tell you, this, if they had lost that game in regulation or in overtime, like if New Orleans had won the coin toss and had gone down there and scored first and Minnesota never touched the ball in overtime,

I would have blamed Mike Zimmer more than anybody else. He got way too conservative in the fourth quarter with a 20 to 10 lead and a 20 to 17 lead. And if you want to say that he didn't trust cousins and he was afraid cousins might make a tragic mistake, that's fine. And I sort of sensed that maybe that's the way he was feeling. I think Mike Zimmer is just a conservative coach by nature. He relies on his defense, a defense that's been very sporadic all year long, but yesterday was outstanding with that pass rush, especially considering that they had two secondary guys out,

and then Xavier Rhodes got hurt during the game. It was their defense. It was Dalvin Cook, but Kirk Cousins had a hell of a game, and that was even before the overtime drama, where he delivered on that drama. drive four of five, including the big one to Thielen, that set up the game winner to Rudolph, which I will now address right now. That was offensive pass interference.

It was. It should have been called. It doesn't always get called. It almost never gets called. No, that sort of extension of the arm gets called a lot. I don't know if it's, I don't know what the percentages are. I would say that that extension of the arm, the way he extended the arm to create the space, probably gets called 50% of the time, 40% of the time I'll give you worse.

It's a subjective thing. I think if it flagged it, I would never have said, even though I was rooting for the Vikings, that that was an awful call. What I am glad about, however, is that when it went to New York and to Al River Run, they did not overturn that call because they haven't all year long. That was offensive pass interference, in my opinion. We see it get called. Sometimes we see it get ignored a lot of the time as well.

I don't know, 50, 50, 60, 40, whatever you think it was. If it had been flagged, no one would have been shocked. The fact that it wasn't flagged, no one was shocked. It goes to New York. We've seen all year they haven't overturned calls like that. And they didn't yesterday in New Orleans of all places. The irony of all of that. How about this in the last two weeks?

The rule that was created to appease the whining New Orleans franchise and their fan base. a rule that we knew back in August was problematic and was going to be an issue for the league to administer and manage all year long. And it's been a disaster in the way this has been implemented. How ironic is it that last week they failed to review a clear defensive pass interference against Seattle in the end zone that would have created a first and goal and probably led to a Seattle win, which would have made New Orleans a top two. seed, and they wouldn't have been playing yesterday. And then in the playoff game, in the same place where it happened last year, and offensive pass interference did get reviewed. There was some talk that it hadn't been reviewed. Of course, they did review it. But Al Riveron essentially saying this was the kind of subjective call that we do not overturn. That's not what the rule was

intended to do on a play like that. Excellent game, excellent win. Major career moment for Kirk cousins, even though the narrative about him not performing in the clutch, clutch has gotten incredibly twisted and has been very incorrect and lazy over the years. But yesterday was obviously in a playoff game, his first playoff win against a 13 and three team on the road against that particular team and playing the way he did, and especially in overtime, engineering that last drive to win the game was a career moment. Can he keep it going? Yes, he can.

They're only a six and a half point underdog at San Francisco. It's Kyle against Kirk. Boy, if you're a Redskin fan and you've hated Bruce Allen and Dan Snyder and what they've done to this organization, understand this, even if you're not a Cousins fan or a Shanahan fan. What they are going to have to live through next Saturday afternoon in that game is gut wrenching to them. They want those people to fail.

They tried to, they did. They badmouthed them on the way out of, They badmouthed them while they were here. It's the petty low-rent way in which this operation has been run over the years. And if you dislike the people that are running this organization and one of the people that just got fired from this organization, trust me, they were not rooting for her cousins yesterday. They want him to fail. They want Kyle Shanahan to fail. The two of them will face off next week.

What about all of the other games? Let's bring in Ross Tucker. Ross, of course, you know, played in Washington for a period of time, knows the Redskins, and of course knows the NFL really well. And we've had them on the podcast before and always enjoy his visit. And you have, you've got like a million podcasts yourself. I mean, you're the king of podcasts. Give us the two or three that everybody should be listening to right now.

Well, I mean, I have a daily one, the Ross Tucker football podcast. So if you want an ex-redskinned or ex-NFL player in a basketball, 30 minutes, let you know what's going on the NFL every day. You can listen to that one. And then probably, Kev, like everything else, the Fantasy Podcast, Fantasy Feast with Joe Dolan is very popular, as is the Even Money Sports Betting podcast with Steve Fezick, the only two-time winner of the Super Contest out there at the Westgate in Vegas. And honestly, I'm into those, too.

Like, every year I get further removed from my playing days, the more fans. fantasy and betting interests me when I'm watching the games. I mean, every game I watch, I am always entertained by football, but there is no question, dude. It makes it more interesting when you have something on the game. Welcome to the club, because I've been a degenerate for about 40 years and been involved in all of this stuff forever, and it's always been a big part of my podcast, gambling talk as well.

At one point, Ross, this year, and Aaron will tell you, Aaron, my producer, who's on right now as well. I was 26 above 500. I'm now a couple of games below 500, which, by the way, is the definition of gambling. It's not for everybody, and more times than not, you're not going to win. If you understand that, you're in much better shape. And it's true, it's true, but, so first of all, I'm up 24 units for the year. That's amazing.

Yeah, for the season. I got up to as high as 30, and then the last two weeks, you know, I lost both. you know, wildcard weekend, I pushed. I had two units on the bills getting the two and a half, two units on the Titans getting five, one unit on the Vikings getting eight, and one unit on the Eagles getting one and a half. So I push for the weekend,

but that's kind of the beauty of it, right? I mean, even if you push or you lose a little bit, it made every game very, very entertaining. I'm just still very angry at the bottom. Buffalo Bills for blowing that when they were thoroughly dominating the Texans for 40 minutes. I cannot believe that that bet didn't cash. And then for the Eagles, I guess I'm mad at Judevian Clowney, because I kind of feel like if Carson Wentz doesn't get hurt, the Eagles win that game.

So it's funny, you always justify it that way, right? Kavre, like, in my mind, I was 4-0, right? I don't count the positive things that happened for me in the other games that I actually won. As someone who's been in the wagering side and also the other side through the course of my life, I never remember the good wins. I always remember the worst of the beats. And like as an example, I was actually on Houston laying two and a half. I won't remember that as much as I'll remember the fact that I had the Eagles at a pickum.

The game actually got to, Aaron, I don't know if you saw this. Philadelphia got to minus one at some point. I had the Eagles at a pick and Carson Wentz gets knocked out of the game. So let's start there because I think that's where you were, right? You were in Philadelphia yesterday? Yeah, I got the double dip, man. I was a pregame show. I did pregame for Eagles all year.

So pregame show up there and then I was sideline for Westwood won. So I double-dipped. It was awesome until he got hurt. I love the double-dipping opportunity. If you're going to be there, you might as well get paid for it. Did you think the clowny hit was intentional? Clearly it should have been flagged. Do you think it was intentional?

I don't think he was intentionally trying to injure him, no. And, you know, I was a very borderline player because I wasn't overly talented. So I've called dirty a bunch of times in my career. People six said I was cheap or whatever. so I'm not the guy to sit here and say a hit was dirty or was cheap. I do think a flag should have been thrown, and I think the NFL saying, well, he was a runner, blah, dude, even if he was a runner, first of all, you're down on the ground, and Clownie comes in with the top of his helmet,

hits him in the back of the head. That should still be unnecessary roughness. And by the way, even when a quarterback turns into a runner, they protect those guys more, and they're full of course. if they say they don't. And I can tell you right now, they'll say whatever they want publicly, privately, the owners,

you can't tell me Jeffrey Lorry and Roger Goodell aren't saying, dude, you got to throw the flag on that. We're trying to protect these guys. Ultimately, though, like, does it matter that much? I mean, it wouldn't have brought Wentz back. You know, like throwing the flag, he still wasn't going to play again.

Okay, so the Eagles get 15 more yards on that drive. And I guess people feel a little bit better about it, but it's not like whether a flag was thrown on that play was the difference in the outcome. It's him getting hurt was the difference in the outcome. You know, so McCown comes in and he actually played really well. And he really, like, we've seen veteran quarterbacks over the years be forced into a playoff game.

Like I can remember way back in the day, guys like Jim McMahon late in his career with the Eagles or with somebody else. I mean, a million different examples. And McCown went for it. Like he kept the ball on a reed option and ran at 11 yards at 40 years old. And I loved the way he really seemed to be fearless in the moment. What did you think of his performance? And then I wanted to get to a certain situation where I think Doug Peterson failed him.

But give me 30 seconds on McCown's performance. I thought Josh played pretty well overall. And I kind of expected him to play pretty well. He's always been a good backup. Doug Peterson is an excellent coach. I thought put him in some good positions. The big difference is Red Zone. I mean, they settle for three field goals.

And twice on fourth down, they're not able to get it. Meanwhile, Went, even when the Eagles were struggling earlier in the year, Went was the best Red Zone quarterback in the NFL all year. Right. And the Eagles were the best. So you just can't tell me that they wouldn't have scored a couple touchdowns there. Now, maybe the Seahawks and Russell Wilson find a way to score more then, because changes the complexion of the game or what have you.

But no question in my mind that they were to score more points if Wynes didn't get hurt. But yeah, I thought McCown was good probably other than the red zone. Yeah, and so that's where I would get to. The one gripe, and I think Peterson's a phenomenal coach, I hated the decision to go for that first fourth down. It was fourth and nearly five. There were six and a half minutes to go. I think sometimes Ross coaches look at an eight-point league.

lead and they just assume it's a one possession game, where actually it's 50-50 that it's a two-possession game more times than not. And I just felt like in the moment watching it, they watching that game, they were moving the football, they were capable of getting stops. I really thought he should have kicked the field goal there. What did you think? Well, I think the argument would be they hadn't been able to score a touchdown yet. And so even if they kick a field goal, they're still going to have to a touchdown to win the game. And so in his mind, it was one way or the other. They got to get a touchdown.

And so we're going to take this chance here. And if we don't get it, we've got them pinned pretty deep and gives us another chance to get a touchdown, which they in fact got. You know, they had back to back four downs where they had chances to get a touchdown and then the two-point conversion to tie it. So I didn't have a problem with it. I probably would have gone for it as. well knowing they needed to get a touchdown and you didn't know how much time or opportunity

you'd have left. D.K. Metcalf was one of the stars of the weekend. He fell to the second round. There was all kinds of conversation about workout warrior but wouldn't produce, you know, based on sort of the measurables. What did you make of him in that game yesterday? Well, you know, I played seven years and there are some guys that end up being, bus because they just can't play. But being the biggest, fastest, strongest, dude, that doesn't really go out of style.

I mean, it's like when I tell people about their kids and what years should they play football or whatever, this isn't lacrosse. This isn't tennis. And what I mean by that is, yes, there are skills involved, but it will

always be a height, weight, speed, aggression, sport. and so if you don't want Giant to play football until ninth grade if Johnny's big and fast he's going to still be good at football whether he starts 9, 10, to 11th. That's D.K. Metcalfe out there.

He is the biggest receiver out there. He's one of the fastest dudes out there. He's an absolute monster. People really didn't think he'd be able to run some of the routes that he does. And you think about all the receivers that were taken ahead of him,

I give the Seahawks a lot of credit for saying, you know what? Let's just start with what he does well, and he's already shown that he does that even better than they thought and can do even more than they thought. I thought he was fantastic. I also thought, a former coach of mine when I was with the Redskins in

2001, can we please give Brian Schott and I more a little bit of credit? Yeah. I mean, all anybody ever does is just talk negatively about him because of some of his previous stints with like Jeff Fisher. You know what? Maybe Jeff Fisher was the problem. Because,

Because Schoenheimer comes in, I thought the deep play action pass to the touchdown for Metcalf was awesome. And then have a third and ten? Everybody else in the league runs that and punts it away. They throw a deep post. And, you know, who knows? Maybe that could have been picked off or whatever. And obviously it could have been incompletion to stop the clock. They went for it.

They got it. Schontheimer deserves a lot of credit. He's got a quarterback he can trust as well. You know, you said something that was, it's funny because I've been, I've coached basketball. basically on and off for 30 years. And when I would talk to parents about their sons and when I've done that recently about football, I've said the same thing that you just said. I've said, you know, with football, if they don't want to play, do not force it on them.

This is not a sport you force your kids into playing. They've got to want it. They've got to want to do it. And with football, if they don't decide to play until they're a junior in high school, if they're athletic, they'll be fine. You know, it's so true about that sport, whereas in other sports, like basketball, if you're athletic and you decide, oh, I'm going to start playing basketball in junior year, it's too highly skilled, you know,

and honed skills over the years, ball handling in particular. Football, if you're big, strong and fast, you can go out there for the first time as a junior in high school and kill it. I think that's great advice, too, for parents. All right, I want to talk about Kirk Cousins because I opened up this podcast. I'm one of the people here, Ross, in this city, that loved Kirk Couss, that thought the Redskins butchered the cousins situation seven ways to Sunday.

They had a chance to sign him after 2015 to a team-friendly deal. They didn't have any vision on him. Then they should have traded him when they weren't going to pay him and gotten something back from San Francisco. So I always put it on the team as to why he's not here,

and I've been rooting for him ever since. And people like to talk about he's never delivered in the clutch. Yesterday was actually his 14th career game-winning drive in the fourth quarter or overtime. but it was clearly, even for people like me, it was the defining moment of his career yesterday. What have been your thoughts on him, and then what did you think of him yesterday?

So two things. Number one, I agree with you that I thought the Redskins mismanaged that situation by not signing him to the money he wanted earlier because he is a franchise quarterback. He is a top 12 quarterback in the NFL, and better than that this year. and the Redskins could have locked dead, and he's also been very durable throughout his career, and he's a tremendous ambassador and face of any franchise. Now, that said, I know Bruce Allen got fired, and I thought it was the right decision by Dan Snyder, but I thought the trade for Alex Smith, given the context of the situation they were put in, was extremely impressive.

I mean, to bring in Alex Smith and then have him under contract until 2023, at $23.5 million a year? Are you kidding me? I mean, guys are going to be getting $40 million a year at that position in two months, and you were able to get Alex Smith locked up for that long at $23.5 million? I thought that was a tremendous trade, and, you know, I tweeted that at Ross Tucker NFL. People are like, he should still be fired. One good move.

I'm not saying he shouldn't be fired. I'm just saying you can still say positive things about people when they lose their job. Everybody has a batting average, and his batting average was not high enough, but that was a big-time, big-time move by Bruce Allen. I love what Cousins did on Sunday because I hate lazy narratives. I hate crutches by people in the media that don't actually do the work. They just pile on, and they just go with what the consensus is because it's just a safe haven to say, Kirk Cousins is an elite. Kirk Cousins is the French.

He can't win the big game. So I love when someone shoves that up there, you know what, and Cousins makes the throw that he makes the feel in to score the winning touchdown after that to Rudolph. I love that because now those people have to figure out what else they're going to say. It's kind of like why I wanted like Marvin Lewis, Annie Dalton, to win a playoff game with the Bengals. You know, like I just, I don't want people to say,

they never want a playoff game. Like, no kidding, dude. We already know that. Can you please provide some value? I'm listening to you while I'm driving to Chick-fil-A. Can you say something in these seven minutes that I don't already know and haven't heard or seen on Twitter 543 times? Yeah, it's funny. I mean, I think you and I probably agree on a lot of things, and I don't know that I knew that.

I know what we've had you on the show before, but I guess we haven't talked about this thing specifically because I called it, you know, early in the show. I said, you know, you're entitled to your incorrect lazy narratives, which is what everybody has been on. Now, I've been just as annoying. You know, I know people like me who have been supportive of cousins have been just annoying, just as annoying with, you know, our excuse making every time he hasn't delivered, like the defense wasn't good or he didn't have a running game or whatever it was. And a lot of those things were true over the years.

But anyway, I'm so happy for him. And one of the reasons I'm happy for him, Ross, is I know this or, organization and them, you know, the paths they've taken, which have typically been low rent, whether it's on Scott McLuhan leaking stuff to the post about what a drunkard he was, or after offering Kirk a low ball offer after 2016, $31 million short of what the Vikings would offer eight months later and calling him greedy. You know, some of that, for me as a Redskin fan, but not appreciative of the way it's been run here over the last few years, I know how much it's painful to them to see him do well.

Do you think they have a shot at San Francisco Saturday? I do. I really do, primarily because I don't think San Francisco's as good as they were earlier in the year. I do think the short week is tough for the Vikings to go on the road again on a short week. But you win in the Superdome, man. You can win anywhere. And here's the thing. That was no fluke. They beat their butts, and they beat their butts up front both sides of the ball, which I couldn't believe. You got Daniel Hunter and Everson Griffin playing that well.

That probably ends up being the difference in the game in San Francisco. Is it Bosa and Buckner and Armstead, or is it Daniel Hunter and Everson Griffin that dominate up front? We all love the skill guys and fantasy football, and I'm not saying this just because I was a lineman, but, you know, most of these games, like everybody's talking about Derek Henry. You see how many times Derek Henry was able to run for five yards before he was touched? I mean, can we please talk about the Titans beating the Patriots brains in? You know, the game is not as complicated as people make it,

and it's rare when the team that wins the battle of the trenches does not win the game. Yeah, I mean, that's an interesting way to look at that game Saturday, and I think it's the right way to look at it, because DeNeal Hunter is a star that a lot of people don't know. He is a game wrecker, and he's been that way at times this year. And then you've got what they have in Bosa, that speed up front. It's like whichever quarterback is harassed into third-down misses or worse, third-down mistakes, you know, they probably lose the game.

Both teams are going to want to run the ball. And ironically, in the same way, right? You know, the Shanahan system against Kubiak's Shanahan system and run scheme in Minnesota, they'll be mirrors of each other, won't they? Correct. And it says a lot for that system. You know, at least one of them is going to get into the conference championship game, too.

And I'm not sure they're both, like, overly talented, although I thought it was weird that everybody thought the Saints are going to blow out the Vikings. I mean, they got a top 10 quarterback. They got a top five receiver duo. They got a top five running back. They got a top five defensive end duo. They got a top five linebacker duo.

They got top five safety duo. I mean, the Vikings got a lot of good players, dude. Yeah. Like to think that they're going to get blown out and they get a lot of playoff experience, no. And they didn't. That's why I love the Vikings getting the eight points. I thought that was crazy.

Yeah, they're going to get six and a half less than a touchdown. It looks like they're begging the public to bet San Francisco and lay less than a touchdown, which usually works out poorly. for the public. All right, the other two games real quickly. So you mentioned Derek Henry. I thought he was the best player I watched this weekend. And to me, what they can do running the football gives them a chance against Baltimore. Agree or disagree? Agreed. What I don't like about it for the Titans is they're the only team in the playoffs in the AFC that hasn't played the Ravens yet. And I liken the Ravens,

to playing like Army or Navy or Air Force and college football, the scheme is so different and so unique that the first time you actually go up against it, it is a real awakening. Your scout team is not able to do a very good job with it, and then you get to it, and even if they do a decent job, the speed of it, is just so different.

So what happens then is the Raven get a lead. they get up 14-0-0-17-3, whatever it is. And then as the Titans, do they get away from Derek Henry? Do they start to throw it with Panahill? They probably will, and they'll probably fall into the same trap. Everybody else has played the Ravens has fallen into. Yeah, it's a great analogy because those teams that see the triple option, you know, Army, Navy, Air Force, Georgia Tech for the first time are usually at a disadvantage.

Sometimes those are great underdog plays during the course. course of the college football season. I didn't think about it that way. But to your point, it's like Tennessee has to use their running attack, which San Francisco ran the ball against Baltimore and Buffalo did to a certain degree in the last two games they played that were competitive, Baltimore, that is. Tennessee's almost got to get a lead or keep it, you know, or keep pace with it until they figure it out to have a chance. You know, I think if they score first, they have a chance. If they don't score first, I think they probably have major issues.

Yeah, agreed. All right. Last one, I'll let you run. Houston, any shot at Arrowhead? Seattle, I'm assuming you do give them a shot at Green Bay. Yeah, I give whatever team Elsa Wilson is playing for in any game ever until the end of time, a chance. I think he's the best quarterback in the NFL. if I can only have one for the next 10 years, it's Russell Wilson.

The guy's unbelievable. As for the Texans, not really. Now, I know they played them well earlier in the year, but this Chief's defense is playing so much better than they were then. Maybe that gives the Texans a little bit of confidence, but I don't have a whole lot of faith in the Texans. They're basically Deshaun Watson and a bunch of guys. I think the Chiefs probably hammer them.

At Ross Tucker, NFL. Listen to all of his podcasts. They're all available in the same way you get this podcast. Google Play, Stitcher, iTunes, Apple Podcasts, all the ways you get a podcast. He does a great job, and I really enjoyed the conversation per usual. Thanks, Ross. Absolutely. Take care, Kev. All right. Thanks to Ross Tucker, who I probably kept a little bit longer than he wanted to be here. I know he had to get out in a hurry. So I appreciate him. giving us some time. Real quick word about my bookie.ag. It's already the most trusted and reputable sports book in the industry. A couple of you have tweeted me, which I appreciate that it's worked out well for you, that you had a little bit of a difficult time figuring out the promo code and the offering, but they made it easy for you. So I'm glad it's worked out. But my bookie.orgie.org is really the place that you can trust. And there are a lot of places out there you can't. You know you're going to get paid if you win.

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If I could have gotten a touchdown, almost did, with that play to Taiwan Jones, you know, where Deshawn Watson got hit and avoided the sack escaped, hit Taiwan Jones, and he was in the clear. I was like, go! And then once he got knocked down at the nine-yard line, you knew they would play for the field goal, which kept the game under. All four games this weekend, under the total.

Yes. All four of them. I had Houston lane two and a half. I had the over in that game. That split. And then I had Minnesota yesterday, which won. And then I had Philadelphia, which I do believe what Ross said. Had Carson Wentz been in the game,

They've been a good red zone offensive team with Wence that they may have won that game. Philadelphia went from a one and a half point dog to a one-point favorite. There was a ton of sharp money on the Eagles before that game kicked. I ended up getting it at a pick and lost. Two-and-two smell test, a loser for the year right now. A couple of games below 500 with still divisional round, championship round, Super Bowl, still have a chance to get back to 500. Out of the 13 years I've done this,

I believe 10 of them have produced winning seasons, and the three that ended up being less than 50%, Aaron, in terms of record-wise, they were like 48.5 to 49.5%. Somewhere they were barely below 500. I don't want to be below 500. I'll still try to make a run here. And I already like some of the games for this weekend.

I do think I like Minnesota a little bit, plus that number. I'm thinking about playing it right now and buying the half point right now at six and a half to get it to seven. I'm pretty sure I like Tennessee a little bit. At the same time, I think that the public's going to load up on Seattle at Lambo. That's what I'm guessing. I think I'm going to like the Packers in that game, even though I don't think they're very good. It's the same way I thought about Houston this weekend. I thought Buffalo was the better team, but my instincts, my contrarian instinct said Public thinks Buffalo is going to win this game

that Houston's not very good Houston will figure out a way to cover they did barely they needed two two point conversions to get it done Houston and Seattle are very similar teams in that they have pretty good not great defenses the offense is kind of messed up but they both

have tremendous quarterbacks who can single-handed I trust Russell Wilson more than Deshawn Watson I do too but Deshawn Watson is still as we saw can do crazy things that no what their quarterback can do. So that's what I wanted to do now. We had a conversation with Ross Tucker about all these games. I wanted to get into the four games a little bit more in detail, and then I wanted to hit on some Redskins stuff, and then we'll get out of here for the day. By the way, the breaking news this morning is that the Cowboys have hired Mike McCarthy.

First of all, what they did in this Jason Garrett saga over the last week was really interesting. And then they fire him or they don't renew him. They make the announcement. They presented the announcement as we have decided to not, you know, sign him to a new deal because his deal had run out. Right in the middle of the Eagles game, by the way. So right in the middle of the playoff Sunday. That is a no-no in the NFL. I want everybody to understand that you do not, you are pretty much under the, have the

understanding as an owner, that when this postseason starts, it's about the games on Saturdays and Sundays. If you got big news, it happens during the week or maybe, you know, overnight after the games are over. Jerry Jones put the press release out during the Eagles game. I bet you anything that the league was not happy with Jerry about that. Anyway, what's interesting is before they hired Mike McCarthy, Mortensen was reporting at ESPN that they were looking for an NFL guy. This goes, flies right in the face of what we've been hearing all year. Lincoln Riley, Urban Meyer, Matt Rule. You know, Jerry wants a guy that he,

He can control. And McCarthy is going to be that guy. Marvin Lewis was the other candidate for the job. Also mentioned before they hired Mike McCarthy was Jeff Fisher. Apparently Jerry Jones had conversations with Jeff Fisher. I'm not impressed by Mike McCarthy as a head coach. I don't think he's awful as many people do. He's fine.

But Rogers, hello, would have made any coach a winning coach. But, you know, there was something else real quickly before we get to the four games. I was going to get to this eventually. You know, over the weekend, Dave Gettleman essentially admitted that the Giants didn't move fast enough on Shermer. They should have fired him during the course of the year. And that Ron Rivera, by the time they did fire him and they got to their coaching search, the Redskins had already locked Rivera up and that he was very interested in Rivera. That's an interesting revelation because one of the things,

and I'm not going to sit here and backslap Dan Snyder a lot. I'm not, okay? Because the obvious, you know, move that he made with firing Bruce and hiring a new head coach is two to three years too late, or late, not too late, but late. But he really did move aggressively here after the guy he wanted when he decided that that was his guy or Joe Gibbs decided that was his guy. And he had to, because ultimately Rivera, even with a limited number of openings, would have had a way to play, you know, would have had another option, would have likely had the Giants as an option. And maybe would have preferred that. I don't know. But the Redskins were in position to chase him. They did it. They had already fired their head coach early. It's one of the few things they've done

right here recently. All right, I'm going to come back to the Redskins in all of the news of the weekend. But let me get to these four games. And we'll take. them chronologically. The Buffalo Houston game was nuts. It was a crazy fourth quarter in overtime, but before we got to that, I loved Buffalo's offensive game plan. It was aggressive. It was using Josh Allen as a runner in so many ways. They used them on quarterback power sweeps, quarterback draws. They used him as a receiver. Quarterback zone read. They used him as a receiver. He's also very good off schedule. I'm a Josh Allen fan. Cooley was all over him, said he's going to be a really good NFL quarterback. He's a

baller. And he said, don't let his low completion percentage fool you that Wyoming didn't have a lot around him. But I would also say that he is inconsistent with his accuracy. He also really freaked out a little bit at the end of his very first playoff game and got rattled a little bit. But I loved their game plan with him. I like him. I like Devin Singletary. He was one of those backs in the draft that came out last year that I really liked. So I loved what Buffalo was doing, and they were in complete control of the game midway through the third period. 16, nothing up. You know, obviously too many field goals and just one touchdown, but they were in control of that game. Early in the game, too, I wanted to point this out, and I don't know how many of you picked up on this if you were watching this game. Bill O'Brien

challenges a play that looks like pass interference against Hopkins early in the game, Aaron. It was defensive holding for sure. But it was a way. wasn't egregious pass interference, and I'm like, when he threw the challenge flag on that, the crowd was going nuts when they showed the replay. Hopkins was up acting emotionally like, hey, I got interfered with. And Bill O'Brien's a head coach, and you saw early in that game how desperate he was to finally get through here. It's been a couple of years. They were, they've lost, they lost at home last year, 21 to 7 to Indianapolis. He needed that game. He desperately. He desperately needed that game, and he overreacted. The emotion got to him, playoff game,

crowd outrage that there wasn't a call, Hopkins looking around for a flag, and the coach, who's supposed to be the calm and the storm, he lost it in that moment. And because of it, lost a challenge and a timeout in the process. Did anybody watching that game early think that that call would be overturned, that they would throw a flag for pass interference? If you've been watching the NFL this year, no chance. No chance. How about the second half kickoff that got ruled a touchdown after a clear concession by the returner? I mean, thankfully, common sense prevailed, and they called it a touchback, but my God. What started Houston's comeback was not Deshawn Watson, was not Buffalo mistakes.

It was J.J. Watt. He dominated the second half. They were down 13-0. The ball was at the Houston-20. 12-yard line. Buffalo did, and they were getting ready to really go up 20 to nothing, and he gets a huge sack, and the crowd gets into it. They hold them to a field goal, and the next drive, they go down, they score, they get the two-point conversion, and it's 16 to 8. Next drive. Here comes Watt again, pressure. Ball comes fluttering out of Allen's arms,

incomplete. I'm sorry, they get a turnover, first of all, make it 16-11, then down 16-11. Then, down 16-11, third and four. Here comes Watt, gets a piece of balance hand. Ball goes fluttering, incomplete. Now Houston gets the ball, scores, two-point conversion, and all of a sudden, they're up 19 to 16. But that's not even the crazy portion of the game. The crazy portion of the game comes on the drive when Buffalo's down 19 to 16, and they are driving for either the tying field goal or the go-ahead touchdown. And they've got the ball at the Houston 28-yard line with just over two minutes to go. field goal range to tie it. It's third and 13, and Alan drops back. This is one of those situations.

He got rattled a couple of times at the end of the game. There was the play where he tries to lateral it. You know, it's like, what are you doing? I want to talk about that play. It'll yeah, though. We'll get to that in a moment. But on the third and 13, he gets called for intentional grounding. It's a 14-yard loss and loss of down the balls back at the 42. It's fourth and 27 now for Buffalo. They have all three timeouts left, and instead of punting, they go for it. And Alan takes another sack. This one's a 19-yard loss. And now Houston has the ball at the Buffalo 39-yard line with a minute 35 to go. Fourth and 27 with three timeouts left, Sean McDermott, are you crazy? Punt the football! Yeah, I'm... I mean, either.

that or put your field goal kicker out there, which clearly the field goal kicker, they did not think he was capable. It's Hauschka, right? Yeah. They didn't think he was capable of kicking a 59-yard field goal. That's fine. You've got to pun it. Fourth and 27 is like a one in 15 shot, maybe?

I'm one of those guys who always likes going for him fourth down. Even I was like, no. No, pun it. First of all, Alan killed them with the intentional grounding. Kill them. You know, you got to figure out a way to see where that pressure is coming from. and get the ball out of your hands. And maybe on third and 13...

And that's usually don't run backwards. Yeah. And maybe on third and 13, McDermott, they should have run the ball anyway and just said, we'll kick the field goal and we'll go to overtime or we'll try to stop them on defense. But then comes an even more interesting part of the game. Actually, that was pretty interesting. But Houston has the ball. They run it three times forcing Buffalo to call all three of their timeouts,

the remaining timeouts. And they're faced with a fourth and one at the Buffalo 30-yard line with a minute it's 16 to go in a 19 to 16 game. So Buffalo gets the first three down stops, uses their timeouts, and now they're in fourth and one. I'll just tell you right now. Well, I'll ask you first. Did you think they should go for it or kick the field goal?

I like going for it there. I'll be honest. I did too. And I would have net, to me it was six and one half dozen the other. If they kicked a 47-yard field goal, if they felt like Fairbairn was a pretty good bet indoors to make it a six-point game forcing Buffalo. to go 75 yards with no timeouts in the final minute 10 to win the game. That wouldn't have been a bad call either.

But, you know, if he misses the field goal, Buffalo's got great field position. Fourth and one, the way they had been playing there in the fourth quarter, I thought they could make it and end the game. They went for it. They didn't get it. Didn't love the call. This wasn't a call, though. Yeah, what was the call?

Forgetting what the call is now. It was a QB sneak. They tried to go over. Oh, yeah, with Watson. With Watson going into basically the strength of the bill's defense. I didn't love that. And then Buffalo gets the ball, and that's where Josh Allen tries this crazy lateral. You know, all they need is field goal range, and he puts the ball out there on a crazy

lateral that puts it at risk of ending the game. He really did lose his mind a little bit. I like him a lot. I think he's a good player. I think he's a badass baller, competitor. I think he can throw it. I think he can run it. I like him.

I think he's a good player. You know, they nearly, they nearly won the division. That game at New England, remember, he drove him down at the end in Foxborough. Now, maybe if New England's got to beat the dolphins to win the division, they win that game, but they needed to win it to get the buy and they didn't win it. Buffalo could have potentially won the division on that last drive in Foxborough in week 16. But that lateral was nuts, not sure what he was thinking about. Here's the fight.

It was crazy. It was driving. It made no sense. And it ended up actually being good for them because it stopped the clock. And he calmed down. a little bit? Wait, what are you talking about his lateral play? The lateral.

Well, what really stopped the clock was the throw to Beasley that was marked the first down and then went to replay. Right, that did. But I'm talking about even earlier than that. It actually saved them some time by going crazy and lateraling because the ball got knocked around and knocked out of bounds. And while it was a crazy play, it ended up working for the better for him somehow. Somehow.

Well, they got in field goal range. And despite Bougar McFarlane's advice, which on third and 10 was to run it and then spike it on fourth down. Joe Tess, look, most of you that have listened to me know that I'm not a Tessator fan. I think he's small time, and this is too big of a product for him. That's just my feeling. I'm sure he's a nice guy, and he can do, as he was doing for many years, you know, Nevada, Utah State on Friday night. You know, that to me is his speed, not Monday night football, not a playoff game in the NFL.

And Bougar McFarlane, I actually like Bougar more than Tessator. But, you know, he's the master of the obvious. Saturday wasn't a good day for Boulder. And Saturday wasn't a good day for either one of them. Because Tessator, before the game-tying field goal, he says, never before have we had a 19 to 19 overtime game in the history of the playoffs? Like, who cares? Like, give me what the kicker is from the distance that he's kicking it from.

Anyway. I realize this, though. I don't mind them for Monday night football because when it comes to Monday night football in general, I'm just looking for almost background noise. When it comes to the playoffs, it's a problem. It was not good. The game goes to overtime, and at that point, I'm really looking for a Houston win the toss,

walk off 2519 wins, so I get Houston and the over. You know, the over went off at 43. I think I gave it out at 44 on Friday, so it would have pushed per the smell test, but I would have won it because I played it at 43. Anyway, Watson makes one of those escapes. and has Fells for a first down, and Fells drops it. And I'm like, oh, my God, they're going to lose the game based on that drop.

Buffalo gets it. Allen's got a third and 12 conversion. Then an unbelievable third and nine throw to Singletary. Then on third nine, he scrambles close to field goal range, but they called a crackback blindside block on Ford that was a bad call. Bad call. Pereira was on Twitter. Others were on Twitter saying that that was a bad call,

and that forced the punt. You know, they gave the ball back to Houston, and then Houston makes a third in 18, okay, when Buffalo played super soft, and Duke Johnson picked up the first down on a little checkdown throw. And then on that second and six blitz, Watson, I mean, he's spectacular, man, in Russell Wilson, you know, form. He escapes, doesn't get to throw down, doesn't get tackled,

throws to tie one Jones, turns it into a 34-yard game, and they kick the field goal on the next play to win it. 22 to 19. Crazy game. You know, Deshawn Watson takes a ton of sacks, but he makes huge plays with the game on the line. Part of that is their offensive line, but since Clemson, you know, he is, he's a gamer. He is a leader. He's a gamer. He's a winner. That was his first playoff win. I wouldn't be surprised if Josh Allen's got a couple of playoff wins in his future. But for Houston now, you know, they're on to Kansas City. I don't think that they can beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead. I don't think the Chiefs are as good as they were last year,

but I don't think Houston is the team to beat the Chiefs at Arrowhead. That's my opinion. Go to the Saturday night game, Tennessee at New England. Derek Henry was the best player I saw all weekend long. He was absolutely spectacular. 34 carries, 182 yards. I really felt like he didn't get it enough. I almost thought he did not get the ball enough in that game.

The Tennessee goal line stand at the end of the first half, which forced the New England field goal that made it 13 to 7 Patriots, I think was the critical moment of the game. If they score there, they're up to scores, 17 to 7. Maybe they come back down and get a big score before the end of the half. But that was a huge, huge play. Brady almost had a pick six at the end of the half after it got deflected off of Watson. And then you got to the fourth quarter.

and some of the strategy and some of the mistakes that I think were made, Aaron. First of all, the delay of game, false start, letting the clock run, Brable, you know, this is something that I swear to you, and some of you will remember this. With Cooley on the show, I don't know, a couple of years ago, I said, you know, if I'm one of these, I said, there's a loophole in the rules that should be fixed. And Cooley's like what? And I explained it to him, I said, after a delay of game, if it was a play, that was a run-the-clock play, they continue to run the clock. You know, after a false start,

they continue to run the clock. Like, you know, if you really were trying to shorten the game, you could do that and take, you know, a couple of minutes off the clock and then pun it, especially if you were punting it like Tennessee was at that moment where they're going to put it deep into New England territory to begin with. I actually thought that they should have thought about going for it to try to win the game there. But anyway, I love that strategy, which really annoyed Belichick, and he's the one that used it a few weeks ago. I like Vrable. I think Vrable's really, really good. That drive after the fall start, and the delay of game and the fall start ended up being an eight-minute, one-second drive up 14 to 13. The next Patriots

drive, Edelman drops a second and six, which would have been a huge first down. That's your that's your play, that the Patriots will never say it. That's the play that was shocking, because if Edelman catches that, they move to change, they're on a roll. I think they probably end up getting into field goal range to win the game. Hindsight, obviously, is 50-50, as Steve Spruyer once said. But for me, in this game, choosing not to punt, on choosing to punt, excuse me, on two different occasions, I thought were mistakes by the Patriots. It's easy after the fact. but they had a fourth and three and then a fourth and four in the fourth quarter in a game that was a 14-13 game and belichick chose to punt in both of those situations after the first one which was right around midfield

they did get the ball back so they got to stop and got the ball back after the second one they ended up not getting the ball back until the very end um i just thought looking at that team Tennessee and that running back that your odds of making a fourth and four were better than your odds of getting the ball back against that team the way they were playing. And the funny thing about the second one, which was at their own 37-yard line, New England's down 14-13. It's fourth and three, fourth and four from their own 37-yard line, I believe it was. Time left in the game at that particular moment was like three and a half minutes to go. And I really thought they should go for it there, Aaron. And the reason for me thinking that they should go for it in their own territory

is that even if they miss in a one-point game, it's going to be hard for Tennessee to run the clock out at that point because it's a short field. A longer field gives them the opportunity to do what they did, which is run the clock out, essentially. A short field, even if they score a touchdown, you're down 21-13. They kick a field goal, 17-13. If they make one first down,

you're still not in a deep hole. But anyway, I thought that that was really conservative by Belichick. And then when they finally did force Tennessee to punt at 14 to 13 with, what was it, 25 seconds left where he punted it, where Kern punted it, he didn't have anybody back to field the punt. He pulled Edelman up and they went for the block. But because there was nobody back to field the punt, they lost 10 yards of field position and probably five to seven, eight seconds of time. So when they got it back, Finally, the ball was at the one-yard line with nine seconds left.

And Brady threw the pick six, you know, on the interception, which really, the guy that intercepted it should have gone down because they had to kick it off at 20 to 13. They went for two in that spot. Whatever. That's fine. I don't have a problem with that. The analytics people say it's absolutely the right move to try to get it to a nine-point lead.

Personally, I'd rather the other team be forced to go for the two if they have a wild play on the final play of the game to try to tie you. But anyway, that Derek Henry performance was incredible. I give the Titans a shot. I give them a shot at Baltimore. In the same way, we talked about it with Ross Tucker. If they can run the football, and I think it's a great point by Ross that Tennessee hasn't seen an offense like Baltimore's,

but man, I don't know that Baltimore is going to be able to shut down Derek Henry completely. And here's one more thing about that Tennessee, New England game. Ryan Tannahill's final numbers, eight of 15, 72 yards, one touchdown, one interception. You know, if you're a box score reader, and I have a friend of mine in particular who, you know, gives me the rundown of games that he didn't actually watch

based on reading the box score. You can't do that. He would tell me that Tannahill had a terrible game. How can you win with Tannahill? If you watched that game, Tannahill did not have a terrible game. Did have a terrible game at all. actually made the biggest throw of the game, the third and eight, late to convert for a first down. And I thought actually was very much up to the occasion in that game and would not think that he'd be overwhelmed at Baltimore either.

Sunday, we've talked, you know, pretty much all we're going to talk about as far as the Minnesota-Norleans game. You know, the only thing that actually there was a moment in that game that Aaron and I have to talk about. So at the end of that game, New Orleans driving for either a game-winning touchdown or a game-tying field goal made one of the worst decisions from a clock management standpoint. I think I've seen a good coach make. First of all, two times. There were two mistakes. So Minnesota is up 20 to 17, and on a third and 19, Kirk gets sacked, and they don't use their third-neutral. final time out there. They would have saved 40 seconds. 40 seconds and the two minute warning.

And they would have gotten the ball back before the two minute warning. But here's the situation that's just mind-boggling. All right? They get a first in 10 at the Minnesota 26 with 21 seconds left and Breeze after a pass to cook. Breeze spikes the ball. And Alvin Kamara was called for a false start. It was actually an illegal shift, but it's a lot. the final two minutes at the false start, which leads to a 10-second runoff. But if you have a timeout left, which the Saints did, they can use the time-out to avoid the 10-second runoff. And Sean Payton decided not to take his time out, and he instead accepted the 10-second runoff,

which ran the clock from 21 down to 11 seconds. In addition to that, the clock is going to start on the referee's whistle, not on the snap. So now they've got to be up at the line of scrimmage, and the clock's going to roll, and Drew Breeze is going to take a snap with a running clock. This is the dumbest thing I've seen in a long time. Aikman and Buck did not make a big enough deal out of it. Now, Aikman did say, I believe, he said, I would have taken my last time out there. You have to take your last time out there. With 21 seconds left and no timeouts, understand you can throw the ball down the middle of the field and have plenty of

time to get up and spike the football. Are you afraid you're going to fall start again? Okay, maybe. You know, which would have ended the game, but you have plenty of time to take your shot down the middle of the field, get a spike, get a shot to the sideline, which could set up two shots to the end zone to win the game. Instead, he takes the 10 second runoff, Drew Breeze throws a quick incompletion. There are seven seconds left, and still with a timeout left, He sends his field goal kicker out to kick a 49-yard field goal. Even with seven seconds left and a timeout, I would have run something quickly to get more yards so it wasn't a 49-yard field goal.

This dude missed a 44-yard field goal at the end of the first half. Sean Peyton's usually good at this stuff. He completely messed up. Now, Lutz made the field goal, but they never had a chance to win the game in regulation. If you take that timeout with 21 seconds left, you got a shot more like. likely than not at the end zone at least once, maybe twice. Wow, maybe, maybe what he was worried about. And this would be a fair explanation. Was that Minnesota pass rush? Now that doesn't explain the 10 second runoff versus the timeout. It doesn't. Maybe with seven seconds left,

it explains getting the kicker out at that point because you don't want to take a sack. But Drew Breeze was harassed in this game. He was by Daniel Hunter. who is a star in this league. A lot of people don't know DeNeil Hunter. He is an absolute pass-rushing star, number 99 for the Vikings. All right, LSU Kid, third round pick in his fourth year, I think. Fourth year, DeNeil Hunter, maybe third. Everson Griffin is a badass.

Anthony Barr is a badass. Kendricks is really good. Their issue is in their secondary, where they were without two players, and then Xavier Rhodes was in and out of that game as well. But it was a hell of a football game, a game in which, again, Kirk Cousins comes through in a big way. At the end, with a great defensive effort around him, it's funny all of the tweets,

and we'll continue to have this conversation for years to come, I'm sure, as it relates to him, unless he just goes out and wins the Super Bowl this year. And then the conversation, if we want a conversation-ender, it would be that. If he went out and won the Super Bowl this year, unless he played poorly and they won it, then the conversation should be over. At the end of that game, Kirk Cousins went into the locker room,

was handed the game ball by Mike Zimmer, who got way too conservative at the end of regulation. And Kirk Cousins, a guy who Redskins' front office people, were bad-mouthing out in public. Super Bowls chasing Scott Van Pelt around to tell him how bad Kirk Cousins was and what a bad person he was. Remember Scott told us that story? And then inviting Scott to a game, which was crazy. But I've told you how low rent a lot of people in that organization have been. And they've been bad-mouthing him and Scott McLuhan. Anybody that doesn't buy into their delusion the last couple of years were pretty much thrown under the bus. privately and publicly. They told people that would listen. Kirk's a terrible teammate. His teammates

don't like him. This was the locker room following the game yesterday. Hey, that's how we've won all year team, right? You held him with 20 points, man. You gave us a chance at the end. I got three words for you. You like that? What a great video that was. What a great moment if you're a sports fan, because he's become such a national story as much as he's been a local story. And I think a lot of people love to see him come through in that spot. One last point on this game before I get to last night's game. You know, it's not coincidental that Trent Williams and Kirk Cousins were the two people that Bruce Allen had the most issue with here over the years. You know, Kirk Cousins wouldn't

take his $31 million below market value offer. It's also very interesting that Kirk Cousins on his way out said nice things about Dan Snyder, never even mentioned Bruce Allen. Trent Williams, remember when he came back mid-season, said nice things about Dan Snyder, nothing nice about Bruce Allen. Also very interesting that those two players are sort of linked from this standpoint. If you go back to 2017, it was the offensive line. Trent Williams in particular, who was advocating that the Redskins re-signed Kirk, referring to him as a franchise quarterback and talking about what a great teammate he was, all the while the Redskins sang the opposite. Hopefully it's a new day with Ron Rivera in the organization. I believe that to be true. I believe in Ron Rivera, and we're going to

get to some of the things that have been going on over the weekend, but I was happy. Certainly that the stat stuffing choker finally got through the playoff game in a big spot. All right, last night, I didn't think Jadavian Clowney's hit was dirty. I didn't. It should have been flagged, in my opinion, and I think Carson Wentz being out of that game cost Philadelphia chance to advance. And, you know, if they had advanced, I would have given Philadelphia a chance at Lambo. I definitely give Seattle a chance at Lambo, although I think I'm going to end up having the Packers and the smell test, which is my twisted way of thinking. The game last night was interesting in that I really felt like Peterson should have kicked field goals on those fourth downs, especially that

first fourth down. I think it would have been more beneficial. I think a lot of times, view an eight-point deficit as a one-possession game, and you can't. Because worst-best case, it's 50-50 that it's a one-possession game. It's pretty much the odds on a two-point conversion. With McCown, maybe the odds are even less than that. So you probably should have viewed it in that moment as a two-possession game, kick the field goal. And I understand Ross's point that they hadn't been very good in the red zone, and they were going to need a touchdown anyway. But at 17 to 12, hell, the truth of the matter is, at 17 to 12 with two minutes to go on that next fourth down, they could have kicked another field goal with three timeouts left

to get it to 17 to 15. They could inch their way back in and won the game with field goals. That's a long shot. But I definitely would have on that first fourth and nearly five with six and a half minutes to go. I would have kicked the field goal to make it 17 to 12. All right. Let's get to some Redskins stuff, because there was a lot of it over the weekend. So many reports over the weekend. It was really, so many of you get so wrapped up into each one of these things, and I don't have a problem with that. I'm following it as well. There were no less than two dozen reports on Redskins-related moves over the weekend. Some of them will be proven right. Some of them will be proven wrong. It's like this frenzy of information about the hirings and, you know, some of the reports are about what's happened and what's going to happen.

Lots to digest if you're into this sort of stuff, and I am following it. But my God, some of you, some of you are so anxious and you're so critical. There's so much hand-wringing over I-Killard being replaced or certain coaches on the staff. being replaced. If I hear one more person, fan, media member tell me how nuts it would be, how crazy it would be if they let Eric Schaefer go, I'm going to lose it. How anybody would actually be upset or angered or confused about the possibility that Eric Schaefer might be gone. Are you serious? Do you know anything about Eric Schaefer? I know more than you do, and even I would admit that I have no idea if he's irreplaceable, which some of you are convinced he is.

Is he impressive compared to the group that's been out there over the years? Yes. Is he smart? Has he done a good job? I think so. Have other teams been beating down the Redskins door to get him or anybody else? I think the answer to that is no. The only people, Aaron, who have been here in recent years that have been aggressively sought after, and this is going to piss some of you off are the guys that the Shanahan's brought, all right, that Mike brought. Kyle, Lafleur, Sean, by the way, you've got Lafleur this weekend, Kyle this weekend, and Kirk this weekend in the postseason. The Redskins are 3 and 13 and have just replaced their head coach. If I had to wager, I'd wager that Schaefer's pretty good and has done a pretty good job,

but is he so good that he can't be replaced? A contract guy, a cap guy? Come on. They're plenty of people out there doing that, right? Here's the point. To get worked up over most of these moves is a waste of time, in my opinion. All right? To get worked up over Eric Schaefer or Ike Hilliard or anybody else is a waste of time. I tweeted this out the other day and a lot of you responded that some of you have been, again, angst-ridden, critical of, you know, Ron Rivera coming in and replacing some assistance in front office people. As I mentioned, most of you don't know anything about those people, but what you do know is none of them have won.

None of them have one. Has one. If he blows out this whole place and he's starting to, it's a good sign to me that this really is his show. Really is his show. That's a good sign. All right, a couple of the reports in particular. Adam Schepter yesterday, reporting that the team will wait until after the draft to hire a general manager.

The team's thinking, Schefter tweeted, is that it still has people in place for now, though anyone in the front office is in jeopardy after the draft and there will be more changes to come. It was also, I believe, Jason La Canfora, who reported that the Redskins on Friday are looking at guys like Morocco Brown and Rick Spielman and that Rivera's identified Rob Rogers, a guy that was the analytics and cap guy in Carolina to replace Schaefer. So a lot of reports about Schaefer being gone, a lot of reports potentially about a GM decision being held off. I don't have a problem with any of this. I don't have a problem with any of this, in part because I really don't know about the guys that he's bringing from Carolina. but I absolutely believe it's pretty typical of a new coach that's given some power,

which again, we're hoping that he's actually got some power, is looking to bring in guys he's familiar with. When we left here Friday, Scott Turner's name was mentioned, Pat Schumer's name was mentioned as potential offensive coordinators, I would suggest to you that if somebody's brought in to interview from Carolina, it's not an interview. It is essentially Ron Rivera was just working with these people a month and a half ago. So he's not interviewing them. He's seeing whether or not they like the fit.

That's why I think Kevin O'Connell more likely than not is in trouble. Although I think that decision is going to come today or tomorrow. I think that they like Kevin O'Connell. I think the relationship with Haskins is a good thing. But it wouldn't surprise me if he's replaced. I also think Kevin O'Connell wants to potentially go with Josh McDaniels if McDaniels gets a head coaching job. So that stuff will be interesting to watch.

I don't know what will happen with the O.C. I think that's the next big piece of news to hit. Would not surprise me, though, if O'Connell isn't brought back. And again, would I be shocked? Would I be crushed? Would I really consider it to be a horrible move? I would not at all. All right.

So that's it for today. The Caps, what a comeback. That was crazy comeback yesterday to beat San Jose. Seventh team in NHL history to score two goals in the final minute of regulation and then to win the game. It was also one other thing I was going to mention. Well, one thing just broke. What? Tua is going to the draft.

That's not a surprise. Not a surprise, but it's now official. Yeah, now it's official. Good. So Tua Tunga Viola in the draft with Joe Burrow, with Chase Young. The Redskins are in a good spot at number two. All right. Thanks to Ross Tucker for joining us on the show today. Thanks to all of you for listening it back tomorrow. Tommy, you'll join us by phone from Florida. Enjoy the day.