00:00I got this from Steven in Damascus.
00:02Steven writes, Kevin, I'm sick of the injuries excuse.
00:07Other teams are winning with backup QBs because they are better franchises.
00:14I got this from Seth in D.C.
00:17Seth writes, enough with the injuries and bad calls as an excuse.
00:22Washington isn't the only team that has them or gets them.
00:28Backup QBs are 7-1 after yesterday's games, meaning Sunday's games.
00:34Isn't that what you call a mic drop, Kevin?
00:38We're 1-3 with a bad coach and a bad front office.
00:42I've gotten a bunch of those recently.
00:44You know, I get that from people every once in a while.
00:47The injuries thing, people, the injuries are not an excuse.
00:50They're a reason.
00:51They're a reality in sports.
00:53I mean, is this your first season, Steven or Seth?
00:57I don't want my team to complain about injuries.
01:00And teams and coaches and front office, I don't want them bellyaching and using them as excuses.
01:06But as observers, of course, we can identify them as obvious reasons.
01:12Seth's email got me because I'm like, 7-1?
01:16Backup quarterbacks?
01:17It's no chance.
01:18So I decided that instead of letting him mic drop me, I would look it up.
01:26And backups through week four, with week four now completed, are not 7-1.
01:32They are 7-5, which is still pretty good, but they're not 7-1.
01:37Again, backup quarterbacks who have started games through the first four weeks of the season for the intended starters are
01:477-5.
01:49There's context to it.
01:51And it's, I think, important context as it relates to what Washington faced Sunday, not with a starter as a
01:58backup,
01:59but they had a third stringer who played three and a half quarters of the game.
02:02The context is that of the seven backup quarterbacks who have won games this year,
02:09four of those wins were against the Titans, the Jets, and two against the Cardinals.
02:18The Giants beat the Cardinals on Sunday with Jameis Winston.
02:22The Seahawks beat the Cardinals with Drew Locke in week two.
02:26The Giants beat the Titans 12-7 without scoring a touchdown with Jameis Winston.
02:33And the Bears beat the Jets on Sunday with Tyson Badgen.
02:40Four of the seven backup quarterback wins are against the kind of teams that you'd want your backup quarterback to
02:49have to face.
02:50Subpar to pretty awful teams in the case of the Titans and the Jets.
02:55The Cardinals are capable offensively, but they are wretched defensively.
03:00So the other three wins by backup quarterbacks, Minnesota with Carson Wentz went into Chicago in the rain
03:10and won that game 9-3 with the best defense in the NFL.
03:14They had a veteran backup, but he was a backup, Carson Wentz.
03:18That was the game that Caleb Williams got hurt in on that final drive for the Bears.
03:23Case Keenum, who was technically the Bears' third-string quarterback, but a longtime NFL veteran, a many-time starter in
03:32the NFL.
03:33He beat the Eagles on Monday Night Football a week ago last night.
03:38And then the other win was by far and away the most impressive win by a backup quarterback
03:46and maybe one of the most impressive wins of the year, period.
03:50And that was Marcus Mariota's win as the starter over the Seahawks.
03:56So, you know, the idea that everybody else is having success with injuries and playing backup quarterbacks,
04:07seven and five is the record, and there's major context to it, major context.
04:12And, oh, by the way, I mean, I don't think Seth intended to do this,
04:16but accidentally he failed to mention that the most impressive of the seven backup quarterback wins
04:22was the backup quarterback here who beat Seattle.
04:26Thank you, Adam Peters, for re-signing him.
04:28Thank you, Dan Quinn, for coaching him up.
04:33Yeah.
04:35The injuries, people, come on.
04:38We've watched this league forever.
04:41We've watched sports forever, okay?
04:44They're not an excuse.
04:46They are a major part of the conversation.
04:49Major.
04:50Every year.
04:51Every league.
04:52Every team sport league.
04:55They are legitimately among the top two reasons for wins and losses in sports.
05:04In the NFL, it would be quarterback, maybe one, injuries two, but you might go injuries one, quarterback two.
05:14And then after that, you've got to count two or three spots before you get to number three.
05:19In the NFL, in football, now, as far as the referee, you know, the other thing, too, real quickly,
05:31is that Washington didn't start a backup quarterback.
05:35They started a backup quarterback Sunday.
05:37They did in Marcus Mariota, okay?
05:39But the quarterback that played three and a half quarters of that game was a third-string quarterback who was
05:48a rookie.
05:50How many seventh-round rookie quarterbacks who are third-string have started games or come into games early enough in
06:01the games,
06:02not late in the games when the game might be already won, to where it's really on them.
06:07You know, in terms of the win-loss record, it won't go down officially as a start,
06:11but because he came in third series, eight and a half minutes to go in the first quarter, he was
06:18there.
06:19And, by the way, spotted a 6-0 lead.
06:22But how many of them do you think have actually started and won games?
06:26I would bet you it's no more than 10% of them.
06:29I would bet you 90% failed, lost, and lost miserably.
06:35So, trying to put our backup situation against the Colts side-by-side with Carson Wentz and the Minnesota defense
06:47is just, it's apples and oranges.
06:50It's not the right comparison.
06:52To suggest that other teams are handling injuries so well with backup quarterbacks and winning lots of games,
06:597-5, and I gave you the context for it.
07:02Four of those seven were against bad teams.
07:05And the best of the seven actually happened with our team, Mariota, in to beat Seattle.
07:12Are you going to credit Quinn and Peters, Seth, Stephen, for our team overcoming the starting quarterback's injury
07:22to beat the reigning Super Bowl champions in Week 3?
07:27And, by the way, doing it with offense?
07:30Yes, they were helped out with the turnovers and the defense forcing three turnovers.
07:36Yeah, at the end of a season, I would wager a lot of money that when you take, let's just
07:44say,
07:44the top ten most injured teams, let's go top five most injured teams in the NFL,
07:51the aggregate win-loss total will reflect more losses than wins.
07:57And if the injuries include an injury to a good-to-great starting quarterback,
08:05you are absolutely effed.
08:08See Washington, Kansas City, and Cincinnati last year.
08:13You basically have no shot.
08:16When the quarterback is really good to great and among your top three players, you're done.
08:23In that sport, you are.
08:25Now, if you take a leading scorer off an NBA team or a leading rebounder off an NBA team,
08:32you're probably doomed as well.
08:35It's hard to find a team sport where if you take the most important position and the best player off
08:41of it,
08:42where you're going to have success as a team.
08:44The NFL leads the way, though, because the quarterback position is really, I think, the most important.
08:52But, yeah, no.
08:54The backup quarterback and the other teams winning with backup quarterbacks narrative that I've heard
09:01and have read from people who have tweeted me and emailed me, you know, look a little bit into it
09:07and understand that we actually have the most impressive win with a backup quarterback.
09:12And it's not apples to apples when you're comparing Athen Kelly-Manus
09:18and his three-and-a-half-quarter performance without any prep, with a limited playbook,
09:24I'm sure, when he came in, you know, even with a 6-0 lead.
