The Dumbest Play in NFL History | Hour 1

You are listening to The Down Laboratory Show, in partnership with the Draft King Sports Act, now live in all 50 estates! This episode of The Dan Laptard Show is presented by Draft King Sports, Draft Kings, the crown is yours. A funny thing has happened in all our transitioning of the last few years, I can physically feel the audience. And, it's why ESPN tried to get me out of the local hour the entire time I was doing it. It's my favorite hour, it continues to be my favorite hour. That's the explanation. I know you want your football, so I'm going to start with baseball and Jose Ramirez. I don't know, like I was thinking to myself, "Dan landing archmaning or white socks fanning." And then, what happens is you get this guy doing this thing on this pitch. El lanzamiento en camino, batazo, profundo, polega, tinder, echo, esa pelota! Uno otro, otro pinch, otro mes, Jose Ramirez, con cuadrangular de los carreras, ponia arriba lo cual tiene dos carreras por cero. Lo puso chiquitita, seto cuadracular de la post temporada, el segundo en esta, en que vijeron que no matiaba, agarravesu ahí, dos acero, todo la ventaja, el equipo aquí blanco. It's a good call. I won't always say that. They didn't even mention that the ball was less than a foot off the ground. Like, I have no idea the physics of that elude me in a game where the white socks struck out 21 times. The physics of him hitting a home run on that pitch make no sense to me. It's only because he's better than most of the hitters in baseball. We also had Jose Ramirez excited in the clubhouse after. What kind of pitch did you have for a home run? A pitch that was 10 inches off the ground, 10 inches off the ground, it's the lowest pitch hit for a home run in pitch tracking era. And they went to nothing to go to the ALCS, it was amazing. So the football yesterday, as I did not believe was very good, but they gave me some historic and they gave us some historic stupidity. I don't even like calling, let's start with the first game of the day, because I've got the Jags are so frustrating, they are so sloppy, like 10 penalties in a first half. You see Trevor Lawrence spiking the ball angrily at the goal line. They're angry because they live in Jacksonville. They're angry because their home games are in London. They're angry because their home games in London have more Philadelphia fans than they do. Right, at first and goal at the one, two delay of game penalties, till Trevor Lawrence just spikes the ball on the ground, just furious with his center. And they won the game ridiculously at the end. We're going to get to the game yesterday, there was the dumbest, but these were two coaches starting your Sunday with the dumb off. Cereani has taken the blame for this and with seven seconds left in that game, he ends up. Let's hear from Cereani here so that we can hear him just saying, yeah, that's my fault. I lost to somebody who was behaving dumber than me. You know, our guys fought their butts off today, defense had an outstanding game, keeping us in that game. Offense did enough at the end to go witness that game, special teams did a nice job kicking that there, you know, an M-8 the right decision, and I lost this that game. And that's what I said to our guys and what hurts there is that, you know, the guys fought so hard. And then I don't make the decision that, you know, that I should make it that in the game and I cost us that one, that game and I put that fully on me. Zazlow, the beginning of that game, okay. Kick off, kick return for a touchdown, hasn't happened in the league, doesn't happen in the league. Kick off return for a touchdown. There's a penalty on it. Two guys get ejected. The rest of the game is spent with a long snap, or I've got a theory on this. The reason all of those snaps were high is because that guy only knows how to do punts. That guy doesn't know how to do extra points and field goals. And so he was just snapping everything through his legs as if it was the punter snaps were perfect. All I want to get the Jacksonville holder on this week to see if anyone's ever had a day like that trying to hold kicks. And then at the end, Jacksonville ends up winning the game because they've got this guy with the biggest leg in the, in the sport, a little too much look at me from Cam little. Everyone knows he made the winning kick walk off. He's running by himself. Kickers. Come on. Plate soccer his whole life. He said this was like a, playing in that stadium was like a dream come true for him. Yeah. Whatever. You have any dreams us? Yeah, I dream. Okay. And when you accomplish them, do you feel happy or not? I told you I have lots of dreams. He didn't play football till he was like 17. He played soccer his whole life. Good for him. Cool moment. It is a cool moment. But you're running by yourself. He did Ronaldo celebration. He did not do Ronaldo celebration. Isn't that the, no, no, that's not it. Good job. You jump up. You land like that. Did you see him jump up? Yeah. Roll this again. Did you see him? You want us to watch you be wrong? You don't think that's what he's going for there? Malika will us over here. Let's roll this again. You guys are wrong. It was a pretty cool moment. Like you guys can make fun of it because it's the kicker and he's not playing football the way everyone else is playing football. But that game was lost. The broadcasters were spending nothing but the time talking about what a winner Jalen Hertz is, how poised Jalen Hertz is, how great he is even though he throws for 90 yards every game, how depleted the Eagles were because those are not the Eagles. They're just wearing Eagle uniforms. Like those are the remnants of the Eagles where they're saying they're putting the shortest offensive lineman on the field that's played in the sport in 30 years. Did you guys know, were you guys aware before yesterday's game? I was not that 5/11 is an impossible height to play offensive line now. Like it's just that there hasn't been a player in the league at the position in 30 years. That's 5/11. Did you guys know that? I think their average height went up though with Mark Helbell starting. How does he look bigger in the pros? The bigness of these people, Mike, I had before I get to more from that early game because I did find it interesting for a lot of different reasons. Can you guys get me a photo of Alonzo Spellman here? Because I heard Sean King tell a story. Now Alonzo Spellman at the time was like 265 or 270 pounds. So he was a physique in the sport that was standard setting and he was feared by all, okay. But I'm just watching yesterday's commanders game and I'm looking at the field and that Javon Kinlau is bigger than everyone else and he's just 65315 pounds and he's literally someone I've never seen in real life outside of a football locker room. Like someone in that size was just bigger than everyone else and he's just another guy in that league. Sean King tells the story of Alonzo Spellman sacking him. Sean King the former Bucks quarterback and not a small man. Alonzo Spellman sacks him and says to him, I'm going to kill you. And Sean King says he had the very real thought. I believed him. You got to go home after that. No, what he said instead, you say he's got to go home, but what he said is not only believing him, but under Alonzo Spellman, while feeling, feeling someone who he is afraid of already, he says to Alonzo Spellman, I'm somebody's child. Not like somebody's father, I'm somebody's child is what he whimpered to Alonzo Spellman who's 50 pounds smaller than the people who are playing today. So yesterday in this game with Jacksonville and Philadelphia, this is the broken, tattered remains of whatever your championship Eagles were. Jason Kelsey is openly making sounds every time the Eagles do something wrong. A penalty, a fumble, and no one cares. And I don't care, but I'm surprised no one cares because maybe they don't care about Jacksonville enough to care because usually broadcasters being biased is something that really bothers fan bases. But the jaguars go from, we return the opening kickoff for a touchdown, nevermind second and 40. That's what's been watching the jaguars for me for five years. The whole thing where they throw for 300 yards, but Brian Thomas has zero catches for zero yards because Parker Washington's amazing. Yeah, Dan, I mean, chop wood, carry water, like that's what Parker Washington is. Why receiver one, they've moved BTJ and be like, all right, you're behind Josh Coleman. See you later. That is correct. But I'm still surprised that I'm watching a game yesterday where it's the tattered remains of Philadelphia and a really good Jacksonville team that's unbearably sloppy, just unbearably sloppy. The long snapper situation where they've got a backup, long snapper in there and they have to make all of these decisions going forward on four down because they fear something terrible happening on the snap so much that this is the first time I've ever watched a football game and the timeout that was called at the end was absolutely meant to freeze the snapper. The timeout was, they didn't want, they didn't, little's got no problem or confidence problems like you want, you want me to, yeah, whenever you want, call all the timeouts. I'll sit here in the middle of this and, yes, I've got the biggest leg in the sport. I absolutely believe that yesterday they were trying to freeze the snapper. So then you had the long snapper who's used to snapping 10 yards of a punt, but you snap at the five yards and it's like, I can't do that. That's a great theory that all those snappers. were high because he only knows how to like he's not the real one snapper. He's only he only knows how to do. I can snap it to the punter. No problem. But I'm gonna make every time my holder get up and try to catch the ball. What if we put the Jags long snapper on the Eagles? And what if that long snapper was Gino Smith? He's a Viking. Were you guys aware during that Jets and Brown's game when they said this was a funny stat they said. The Sean Watson looking to have his fourth straight game winning drive at the end of a game. That hasn't happened since T-Bo! And the ball sailed out of bounds when you do that pass by the way. That stunned me though when I heard that stat like wait a minute nobody in the sport has had four straight weeks of like my homes hasn't done nobody's done it. No it not since T-Bo. This is since the miracle of T-Bo. T-Bo is so good. The end of that it made me think there were three plays yesterday. I wanted to ask you guys about this before we get to the dumbest decisions in the dumb off in the history of football. I want to talk about the commander. I know we're going to get to that in a second. But I just want to ask you I thought there were a number of people who could have felt terrible just playing football yesterday. The punter for the Brown's Corey Bodequist like the ball just goes through his hands and he fows up a game that they should have won. Scataboo I mean got bailed out on feeling just really terrible after doing a whole lot of dancing training and everything else. He fumbles in a spot that seems unfathomable only to be beaten by intergalactic stupidity at the end of the Washington game. But I thought that a- did you guys see this play? The guy, the single guy who felt worse yesterday in all of football. I believe his Colby Wooden of the New Orleans Saints. He's 275 pounds and the Vikings full of themselves unoffent having Justin Jefferson back. They run a double pass where they hand the ball to Jefferson and he runs and he throws the back to the ball back to Kyler Murray and Colby Woodson, excuse me, Colby Wooden is standing there and the ball hits him in the face mask and he will never have that opportunity for the rest of his life. The ball was literally thrown right through. It was thrown by Justin Jefferson to a Saints defensive tackle who would have run 50 yards easily with the entire game. It will never happen to him again, not even in his dreams, that perfectly ever again in his life where he's just standing in front of Kyler Murray with 50 yards to the end zone and it hit him in the face. Jefferson threw the ball. He started throwing it while he was still spinning like he'd even look where he was throwing. We're gonna fool them so bad on this play. Through a throw to my five foot six quarterback. Down levitar. I've never stepped foot on that campus. If you told me right now your life depends on it, go to Santa Fe University and just just just take a picture. Jonathan Sasselow, I would die. I don't know where it is. This is the levitar show. Okay, because I still don't have an explanation for some of the things that happened here. So let's see if Chris Myers has an explanation that makes sense when he's calling some of this lie. They don't have a time out. What are they doing? They're going to get him and spike it. They're not going to be able to get the time. It's going to run out of them. The clock ran out. That's Daniel's ran the ball. That's got to boost us. I'll take the tie and get out of town. Dan, if you're a commander's fan watching at home, it's automatic kick a hole in the television. It's the only response. I'm going to go several steps further than that and say that Jaden Daniels may over time erase this with winning and running for 100 yards and being great at quarterback, whether he has functioning elbows or not. But this kind of game management at the end of a game will make it so that people will distrust him in that market at the end of games for a very long time because it is super rare that everybody in the world watching the game has a better idea of what's happening than the quarterback of the team does in the middle of that. Let me set up for you everything that's happening here because the first thing is that James Winston led back a comeback to a tie game that I did not think should have happened because I thought Washington controlled the entirety of that game and all of a sudden it's 20 targets to neighbors and 11 catches and Isaiah likely is really good too. They've got some skill position stuff in New York that would have made the Giants 4 and 1 starting Harbaugh's career if not for some of the stuff that happened here. They've got the ball at the 25 yard line and over time a few minutes left in the game, Scataboo Fumbles. They were in field goal range. It would have been an easy field goal. Washington, because Jaden Daniels is out there playing with whatever's left of his elbows and he's running all over the place. He looks for the first time the way that he did at the beginning of last season where it's both threats running and throwing. Oh my god, this is an unstoppable thing. And then with 40 seconds left and they don't have time out they just start circling around in a way that suggested they were moving too slow that they weren't aware of the situation that Dan Quinn wasn't communicating with his quarterback. What are they doing? They're not going to just spike it here. Why is he snapping in and running around in the backfield? Why has he been tackled in bounds? How does he have no earthly idea what the game situation is? No time, no timeouts. How does he not know anything that's happening in the last 40 seconds of a football game that he just played like that? And then the explanations aftermath made it worse where you're watching this and you're like these explanations don't make any sense. So first let's go to Mike Tomlin here so you can hear what is the appropriate reaction from everybody who cares about football on a Sunday. I'm curious what you were thinking is you're watching the way that this game ended. I described it as disgusting. You know, like the vision wins are too precious in a national football league. I was disgusted by the scalable fumble. I threw up in my mouth. So he's got the throw up in his mouth and then it gets worse. He could just say I found that disgusting. He's like I've described it as disgusting. Like why are you like saying how you've described some use of the national football league there too? I love him for that. That was unscathed. I can't imagine what the feeling was after that because I defy all of you as we talk about this. Go ahead. History of sport outside of JR Smith for getting the score in a finals game. Give me something that feels like this. Not just football. His not just football the most disciplined of everything in sports. Ever. History of sports give me all the things that feel or look like what yesterday. Chris Weber, even though it's an easier mistake to make the stakes. Chris Weber calling a timeout. He didn't have is a panic situation of not knowing how many timeouts he had. But this is the opposite. But it wasn't Mike. There were many people watching who also didn't know he didn't have timeouts. Like this everyone who was watching knew the game situation and everyone was escalating to what is he doing? What are they doing? Here's the part that was also so confusing. Like for a moment there because the the the play started with 45 seconds and ticking. So it's not like you're rushing to the line of scrimmage. It wasn't a fire drill. Okay. They had time to figure out what it's just as simple. Is it not? It's just go let the clock run down. It's like it first seven seconds left or well that's the point. It's confusing to me. It's not even run the clock down. It's not like you want to leave them little time. No, no. You're an overtime. If you make the field goal against over. It's over. You don't need to train the clock. Kick up the elbow. What are they doing? Well, well, well, so afterward. We're going to give you a montage here of people talking about it. But I'm going to circle back around because I thought somehow James Daniels did worse in the post game press conference than he did in the last 40 seconds. Dan, I was watching Red Zone. Okay. I've watched the whole finish live, which again, watching that sequence live is so much better than someone town you have to see how this game ended. Bubble, bubble. And then the post game press coverage or Jaden Daniels comes on. But my phone rang. And this was so important. I had to pause it. I paused. I had to see every second of this. Well, before after I answer this phone call. It's funny what Zaz is describing because I was one kind of disappointed when all of this happened to ruin that game with 40 seconds left. And then I was another kind of disappointment when he was interviewed in the press conference and his explanations were wildly insufficient to me. But let's just have a montage here of Dan Quentin and an assortment of others just explaining, oh my god, this is the dumbest thing any of us have ever done. The sequencing of that does not fall on him. It's an outside throw or a clock. You know, those are the two, you know, out of bounds throw or a clock. And it has to come from me. You only have to put them into that spot. I can do that earlier. And we can finish, you know, the kick early. We don't need to gain more yards. So that's on me. Did you guys know there was a timeout? Was that you didn't have any timeout stuff? Was that talked about in the huddle after the white run? That was that was talking. What was the goal on that play when you snapped? We got to stop the club. We got to know his own situation. We got to relay that as an offense. It starts from everybody to top down. But ultimately, he knows this on me. There's no we. There's no we need to know to stop the clock. You, you need, there were 45 seconds and counting. Is he just there? There's no thoughts in between his years. You say you, but Dan Quinn is saying, "No, I've got to relay that in the situation." And, well, he is covering for his player. But I do believe they both need to know that. It has to be communicated even if it's the most obvious thing. But I want to play because that clip right there does Jaden Daniels some favors. What I'm about to play for you is the awkward back and forth of the rarity of, I almost never, and I imagine you almost never, need an explanation for what it is you just saw in sports from the people at the center of it who have the only explanation because something is inexplicable. Again, I'm going to say this sport, they're really precious about the discipline. What they do on every play in some ways to me is unfathomable, getting the play call which is really long and complicated into your quarterbacks head while the other team tries to steal it. Like, every play and football to me is meticulously scripted and memorized and muscle-memoryed in such a way that when teams get to the two-minute drill, I'm stunned at how well so many of them do it because of what it is they're drilling all week. If you want to watch the commanders mess up a game at the end, why don't you download the Game Time app. Get your friends together, say, "Hey, Dane Quinn's got the ball in the late game situation. We should be there." Get your friends some tickets and tell them it's Game Time. Create an account and use code, Dan, for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply, again, Create an account and use code, D-A-N for $20 off. That D-A-N is for Dan Quinn, not Levitard. How often do you guys need an explanation for what it is that you just saw from the participant? I got it from Chris Myers. Zable, Zable. What are they doing? How often do you guys stop what you're doing in the four o'clock hour because you want to know what the explanation was? Not often. So the reason that I was disappointed by Jaden Daniels is, so now imagine all of this that I'm presenting to you. You come to your television, genuinely curious, seeking information. I had to see it. Not because I want Jaden Daniels. It's not even because I want Jaden Daniels to slap his forehead. I'm such an idiot. I just want to understand what the people in the huddle were thinking. How can something that's this meticulous all week? Mike Tomlin throw up more in his mouth because it has no explanation and then they go to Jaden Daniels and the explanation is not an explanation. What happened there in that last play? We all got to be better situationally. Football starts with me. Everybody will say the same thing, but we just got to be better situation on football. What were you trying to throw the ball away and just took it up? Or what was the goal on that play when you snapped? But ultimately, you know, it's on me. Did you hear anything or say anything in the huddle about, "Hey, we've got to get the clocks out here." Yeah, you've got to be better. You've got to be better. The next question was how did it feel to play like yourself? And I shouted at my television. What happened? Somebody tell me what happened? You're not telling me what happened. We got to be better. What happened? Yeah, yeah, I know you've got to be better. You can't be worse. Like, yeah, you've got to be better. That's the worst thing I've ever seen. Yeah, yeah, you've got to be better. Yeah, well, we know you've got to be better than that. That's the worst thing anyone's ever seen. That's correct. You are meeting the moment, Dan Lebertard. Well, but I didn't know-- You got the answer, Dan. You got to be better. Here's the thing, though. The thing that's funny about everything that you saw yesterday is it's actually forgivable and understandable that the viewer at home thinks the Cooper Cup catches controversial because we don't actually know what the rules and it looked like he got the first down. That part I'm willing to argue about. This part, we all know everybody watching. Somebody watching football for the first time. It's looking at the clock. If somebody was watching football for the first time and said, how did that game end? What just happened there? You would not be able to explain to them what the hell happened. And then when you go into the press conference afterward, that's where the explanation is supposed to happen. How am I more confused afterward than I was already? How many observations is that? We're on 137. Oh, we're just on 176. That's two. I've given two so far. I've got these stacks. Nope, 39. Nope, 39. Dan, how does he not know that we're 45 seconds left? Is he not thinking about anything like he's saying it has to start from the top. We got to get the right play. Can you imagine Moreno? What do we do? My question to all of you is this, okay? I'm going to say everybody with Washington forgot. Will you ever forget the end of that football game? Any of you? Will you? I told you, last week, I told you that the word association I do with Herm Edwards is in the 70s and a game was lost. They handed the ball to Larry Zonka. He picked up a fumble that never should have happened. It was pre-victory formation. Like, victory formation did not exist in football. It's what I associate with Herm Edwards. You may be beginning. They didn't have, like, all right, just need it and we're good. Those were the days. Dan Lebatar. My algorithm on Instagram is dance all boobs. [LAUGHTER] Jonathan Sassilo. It's a good algorithm. This is the Dan Lebatar show. [MUSIC PLAYING] Jeremy, put it on the pole. When was victory formation invented? Do you know and look it up for me as well, please? I would love to know the day where some of the side guys. It's a kind of a radical idea, all right? Listen to this. But when there's little time remaining and we have the ball and we're ahead, we're going to line up like this. And guess what? I'm going to call it victory formation. What do you do? Just need it? Yes. My knee on the ground? But you'll lose your edge. No, that's okay. But the clock runs? What are you doing? Do you think that person was called the P word? Beyond that. When did it evolve into-- and just in case? It might have been after her, Edward. We're going to put a guy 10 yards behind the quarterback. We forgot about this. Why? The first original victory formation. I don't think had someone 10 yards back. And why are we going to do that? Just in case. What are they doing? So the victory formation was developed in the 1978 NFL season after the miracle at the medallands. A botched final play similar to the botched word I just had in a game between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles that resulted in a fumble and a pivotal last second score. And the Eagles named their version the Herman Edwards because he was the quarterback who scored the winning test. Okay, so think about what we're saying here. I'm asking you the question, what game was that? And who were the teams playing? Because I believe this ending-- Who won? Is that ending? I believe they're the same. And they should be remembered as such. But I don't know if I've got this right. Will week five be remembered as 50 years from now? I mean, I don't know. I mean, years is remembered for a long time. Yeah. It was shocking. I'm just-- I'm bringing up something from 50 years ago right now. Right now, I'm bringing it up. And I'm asking you if what we saw yesterday. Look, man, that international game was internationally dumb. Like, it just-- for that, not to be the dumbest ending and the dumbest game and that was played yesterday, means that you have to have a bunch of cavemen out there who are running these military schools who are short-circuiting at the end, where Cereonis consented one of the champion smart ones, and he's not. Believe it or not, I think the rest of Jaden Daniel's career could determine how long we remember that play for. Like, if he winds up not being very good, we're going to point to this. This was the beginning of the end. If he winds up being great, wins a Super Bowl, no one's going to care. My question to you guys as well is what's going to be the victory formation equivalent that emerges from this will never happen again. Like, we're-- this-- we will never see a game end that way again, where quarterback is running around and loop the loops and doesn't know how much time is left, doesn't know how many time-outs he has, doesn't know what he's supposed to do, doesn't know how to stop the clock, doesn't know how to play football anymore, in any reasonable way. You want us to take a knee and lose your heart? I've done the math, game clock, play clock. Nobody's ever done this before, though. Number of downs, I crunch the numbers, we'll never have to give them the ball back. Will the ref know? He might be a little bit confused, but it's okay. Maybe if I take a knee, if I put my knee on the ground, will the ref know? Or am I going to get tackled? Hell no, hell no. Hell no. He's going to stop tackling me, right? It's like we're giving ourselves up. We're going to do that, though. Oh, yeah, no, but I did the math. And the time's going to run out and we're going to win. This is so advanced, that it'll only be a couple of years later, where they realize they don't have to take the knee right away. They can kind of fake it a little bit. I'll tell people how close. And then they take it. But then we're losing more yards. It's okay. It's okay. I'm trying to run, but the time is more important. It's a good run. - Do you guys totally understand what I'm saying when I say, this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen in the sport, this recently adjacent to what happened at the end of that NC State game. - Man, now that you mentioned it, that was Dumber. - No way is that Dumber. - Ah, no, 'cause at least they were trying to accomplish something, but it's done now. - It does lose the game though. - They lost the game, this was a draw. - This does lose the game. - I've never seen anything like that. - I do love the Giants player celebrating the tie. There's nothing more pathetic than celebrating the tie. - It was so great, it was so great. - Then it's definitely, it's definitely, we tied. - Look, this is the funny thing about all of that. I genuinely laugh most times that a game ends on, oh, somebody just fumbled, it wasn't caused or a missed kick, like you're celebrating, but you didn't do anything, it was just a soccer player came out and wasn't good at his job, and you get to win, congratulations. But that celebration is among the most pathetic that I have ever seen, like unequivocally, you had the game a few minutes ago, you're running back as weeping on the sidelines, you spent the off season doing back flips, even though his knees hurt, he runs into walls, he was in that game being emotional about, yeah, I'm gonna get those 60 yards and I'm gonna do it with the top of my head, watch me. I'm gonna just batter into you and I'm gonna be tougher than you, and it doesn't matter to me what my brain feels like in 20 years, I'm gonna go straight through this wall, oh no, I fumbled. Now, I'm on the sidelines, I've taken off my helmet, you realize I'm balding. I don't look like the powerful great athlete that you see on Sundays. - Repair through. - No one noticed. - I'm somebody who is gonna be on the sidelines, and when Chris Myers makes his historic call, - Bobble, Bobble. - He's gonna immediately think of me and how I've been rescued and how my teammates are celebrating, because hooray, Skataboo is not the goat. - Daniel's, yeah, he's not passing the ball. Okay, yeah, they don't have a time out. What are they doing? - Oh my goodness. - They're gonna get up and spike it. They're not gonna be able to get there so much time. - It's gonna run out of them. The clock ran out. That's Daniel's ramble ball. That Skataboo says I'll take the tie and get out of town. - Get out of town. - Bobble, get out of town. - Skataboo, get out of town. - Get out of town. - Did they meet the moment? Is this our new the opposite of Daniel?