00:00I got this from Barry yesterday.
00:03Barry wrote, Kevin, I don't understand the hysteria of this fan base.
00:08Six-point underdogs, played fast, aggressive defensively,
00:13and the offense has challenges against one of the best defenses in the NFL,
00:19and now there is gnashing of teeth and anger over a close loss.
00:25I hate losing, but how can you not be excited about this team?
00:29The complaints about the defense giving up big plays,
00:32that's what the Vikings defense does, and he's making the comparison.
00:36Durante Jones coming from Minnesota, Brian Flores.
00:39And then he finishes his note to me saying,
00:42I'll take 10 TFLs and all of those three and outs all year long.
00:47They will be a force in the second half of the season.
00:54So I have no idea if they're going to be a force in the second half of the season.
01:00That's so far down the road.
01:02We've got seven to eight games, seven and a half to be exact,
01:06before you reach the literal halfway mark of the season.
01:10But they're not going to play, let's just see, schedule-wise.
01:14They won't play their eighth game of the season or ninth game of the season
01:20until November 12th.
01:23I mean, we're two months away from that.
01:25So I have no idea, Barry, what it will look like
01:28and whether or not they will be a force in two months.
01:32But the point that Barry was making is a bit lost on me.
01:38I did not sense, and this is where I'm going to ask you, Max,
01:44because you spend more time on social media, I'm assuming, during games.
01:49I don't.
01:49I'll tweet out stuff, but I don't spend any time reading tweets during games.
01:56I find it distracting.
01:58I like to watch the game.
02:00I'm impressed by all of the people and many in media
02:04who can tweet out legitimately after, like, every play.
02:08You know, I don't know how you catch it all.
02:12Bless your hearts because you're better and more able to multitask, I guess, than I am.
02:20But I have zero interest, honestly, in what is being said on social media during the games.
02:26And the injury stuff, occasionally I'll go to that to see what, you know, does anybody have an injury update?
02:32But usually the game broadcast is pretty good at getting you injury information pretty quickly.
02:38But I did yesterday morning when I got in here early, I did read through a lot of sort of
02:44the social media reaction to the game
02:47from my little, you know, tiny, tiny corner of our fan base's bubble.
02:55I did not sense that there was a lot of negativity about the loss.
03:00I did actually, I mean, there were a couple people I almost responded,
03:05but I'd rather do it, you know, in a longer form, you know, like talk radio, like three hours of
03:12talk radio.
03:12I couldn't believe how many people were, and it must have been early in the game,
03:17saying Jaden's way overrated, he's terrible in this game.
03:20I just, I can't imagine what game you were watching to think that he was terrible.
03:27Obviously, I would think at the end of the game, you had a significantly different opinion of his game.
03:33But I actually, you know, thought he, you know, was definitely off and not super sharp through the first three
03:39quarters,
03:39but at the same time, not doing anything to hurt the team.
03:44And I thought that a lot of what was going on was the fact that nobody was getting open.
03:48And by the way, watched a lot of the All-22, for what it's worth, okay?
03:51I mean, I'm just like any other idiot watching the All-22.
03:56But not a lot of people open.
03:58Not a lot of people open until we got to late third quarter and the fourth quarter.
04:04There were a couple of plays where he could have let it go and maybe,
04:08but it's a good thing he didn't force it because then you wouldn't have had a game,
04:13more likely than not, in the fourth quarter.
04:16But back to Barry's overarching theme, which is people gnashing their teeth, angry, hysteria.
04:23I didn't get that.
04:26I didn't get that from the calls.
04:28We took, what, an hour's worth of calls, 45 minutes worth of calls?
04:32Did you get that from social media?
04:34I mean, it's crazy what you get on that during games, the impulsivity, the overreactions in the moment.
04:43But did you get that, Max, that people weren't happy at all with the performance?
04:47I mean, it's a knee-jerk reaction type thing, especially when things weren't going so well
04:53through the first, like, three quarters.
04:54I think that's what everybody was so worked up about.
04:57But watching that fourth quarter, it really, personally, it calmed me down
05:00to kind of help me realize that these are David Blau's first four quarters in a regular season
05:06calling against Vic Fangio, one of the best defensive coordinators in football.
05:12So I think everybody needs to step back, take a deep breath, reset.
05:15It's only week one, and move forward.
05:20Yeah.
05:21I, um, that was, and we don't know what Philadelphia will be.
05:27Every year's a new year.
05:28We do know they have very good players on defense.
05:32They've been very good players, and they are very good players.
05:36And you have literally, like, a guy that's going to be considered one of the all-time greats
05:41as a defensive coordinator.
05:42Um, and he's had all off-season to prepare, and Washington's new coordinator was who he
05:49was preparing against calling his first game.
05:51I actually think the way Barry described the game, you know, playing fast, playing aggressive
05:58defensively, facing, you know, an experienced defense with a great coordinator, all those
06:03things.
06:04Um, the challenge was a significant one, you know, and the openers are weird, you know.
06:10Philadelphia, remember, also had, like, I'm, I was very, in a standalone evaluation, the
06:18defense was, I thought, really good, other than the big plays, you know, other than, you
06:23know, John Wilkes Booth, Mrs. Lincoln.
06:26But, other than the big plays, I thought the defense was a pleasure to watch on Sunday.
06:32We're comparing it to what we've been watching as a fan base of this team from last year and
06:37the year before, in particular, and even going back to 2023, which was embarrassingly awful
06:41on defense.
06:43But, um, remember, it was a new coordinator and a new offense for Philly.
06:49So, you may have had an advantage because they were new, you know, and they were still, they're
06:55still trying to figure it out offensively.
06:57You're going to get a proven offense on Sunday in Dallas with a veteran quarterback who's been
07:05in this particular system, you know, for a little bit, and two very good and explosive
07:11wide receivers, a back.
07:13So, it's going to be a bigger test, I would think, in week two for this defense than it
07:18was in week one against a Philadelphia team that does have some players, obviously, Saquon,
07:24Jalen Hurts played very well, I thought, um, Devontae Smith, Dallas Goddard, etc.
07:29But, they were new, they hadn't played football over the summer, so it was brand new for them
07:36too.
07:36We'll see.
07:37I will say this, the 10 TFLs, I went back and looked this up, the most in a game all
07:44of 2025 was 13 TFLs in a game, and that was the Browns with a defense led by Myles Garrett
07:52and company.
07:53That Cleveland defense was nasty last year.
07:56Um, so that, that was the most in a game last year.
07:59Washington had 10 on Sunday against Philadelphia.
08:03By the way, they were one of just three teams, uh, with two TFLs for three players.
08:12Uh, the Eagles had 11 drives and punted seven times, 11 real drives, you know, the end of
08:19the game was the kneel down, um, that they counted as a drive as the 12th drive, just like
08:24Washington's end of first half where they, you know, ran a play, which I think they should
08:28kneel it and not run a play and let the clock run out counts as a drive statistically, but
08:33it's not really a drive.
08:34So the Eagles had 11 real drives, punted seven times and had four, three and outs.
08:42Yeah.
08:43Barry, I'll take that also most weeks against a good team.
08:47I just like to increase the takeaways and decrease the big plays allowed.
08:54You know, if they can do that, it's going to be a good defense.
08:57If you can force a team to punt seven times on 11 drives with four, three and outs and
09:04minimize the explosives and get a couple of takeaways, you're in good shape, really good
09:10shape.
09:10So I, I do, you know, I thought the defense gave the team a legit shot to win the game
09:16and in a standalone one game week, one game, it was encouraging, but we'll see because they're
09:25going to play a more experienced offense and a team that's more used to running their stuff
09:31with the play caller that they have.
09:34We'll see on Sunday.
09:35I, I, I, I did not really get the sense in my bubble of people that I interact with about
09:45our team, that there was a lot of gnashing of teeth and anger.
09:49I, if there was, I, I don't, I don't know what it would have been about big plays allowed.
09:56Yes.
09:56Offense didn't do a lot.
09:58Look at the, you know, look at the actual opponent.
10:01You know, they get paid to, uh, as they say.
10:04Uh, so we've got a long season.
10:07They're going to go play the other 16, regardless of what happened on Sunday.
10:10That's the good news.
10:11And we don't have to wait long.
10:13We get one on Sunday at 425 in Dallas.
10:16The Cowboys are three and a half point favorites after their loss to the Giants.
10:23So they are a shorter favorite at home, uh, by right now by about two points than Philly
10:29was at home against Washington.
10:32Uh, I don't know who the right side is at this point.
10:35I, my guess is, is that it will be very much a split game and I won't be giving Washington
10:40out for a second straight week in the smell test.
10:43I did have Washington plus the five and a half in the smell test on Sunday, to which I did
10:49have a couple of people ask me, so were you rooting for overtime and a converted two point
10:55conversion or not?
10:58Because yes, overtime is not the friend of two things.
11:03The underdog better and the under better.
11:06If you have the under or the underdog, overtime is typically not your friend.
11:12Uh, but I didn't care about that.
11:15I, I, yes, I wagered on Washington plus five and a half.
11:18And if I had no rooting interest, I would have been rooting for them to miss the two point
11:23conversion so that the bet won without having to sweat it out in overtime.
11:27But I would have gladly, gladly taken that as an L, uh, if they'd gone to overtime, uh,
11:34and somehow lost by six or seven, because that was, that's how you could lose in overtime.
11:40Philly gets the ball.
11:41They score a touchdown.
11:42They kick the extra point.
11:43Washington gets stopped and it's a 31 to 24 final.
11:47The, the, the favorite covers, it's the only way the favorite could have covered in that
11:51game after the touchdown pass.
11:52Well, there are other ways, um, they could have returned the onside kick for a touchdown
11:58that, that could have happened.
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