Grant and Danny

Live from Cincinnati Ahead of MNF

9.23.24 Hour 1

1:00- Grant & Danny are on the road just outside of Cincinnati getting ready for Jayden Daniels and the Commanders primetime matchup with the Bengals on Monday Night Football tonight. They break down some of the fun things they've done on the trip so far, and then give their first look ahead to the big game tonight.

20:00- The Commanders are the biggest underdogs of the week according to various oddsmakers. Why is that? Grant & Danny try to figure it out.

31:00- The NFC East went 2-1 on Sunday. G&D Recap the weekend that was for the Commanders division rivals as Washington awaits their shot to remain at the top of the division

Broadcast on:: 23 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

Monday, September 23rd, 2024, ahead of Monday night football on a game day in and around the nation's capital. We're Grant and Danny coming your way on the fan. And we are thrilled to let you know that we are currently just down the road from Paycore Stadium where the Bengals are hosting the commanders tonight. We started our day in Kentucky. Yep. We spent some time in Cincinnati. Yep. And we are currently at the Hollywood Casino Sports Book or as we're going to call it, Thumbs Watch Bar in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where we will be broadcasting live today and tomorrow ahead of the commanders and the Bengals. This trip has been amazing already. And oh, by the way, there's a football game tonight. The boys, the local 53, whose names you change immediately, play Cincinnati in prime time. Time is not been kind to Washington, Monday night football especially. They're three in a trillion in their last handful of games, numbers approximate. But the entire point of all of this GP is with new ownership and actual GM, that's a guy that's in charge of football operations. That's not one of the buddies of the owner who ends up being a scapegoat, a general manager who has football qualifications, who has people in his employ that do smart things. The idea is this is all supposed to be different now. And Jay Daniels is here to hopefully make this different now. No more prime time embarrassments. No more tomfoolery. No more Valley who no more embarrassments on national television. You're hoping that this is a different time and it starts tonight. We're ready for football. Now we just got to wait another six hours and 15 minutes or so. But we will get you covered ahead of kickoff better than anybody here on Grant and Danny in the hours ahead. Jay Gruden will join the show at five o'clock to help us preview commanders, Bengals, Logan Paulson stops by. We will break down the X's, the O's of this game with Logan at six o'clock before we hit the road. No, he said jokingly. We're in Indiana. We were in Kentucky. We've been in Cincinnati. So the way it works in this tri state area. Everything's about 20 minutes apart. We wanted to come hang with Tommy. He's got this incredible sports book we're sitting in. By the way, there's a robot that delivers people's food. I want to order food for two reasons. One, I'm hungry. I'd like to eat second. I need that robot. So do you know that we get the robot or do we have to do anything special to get the robot? Well, we know Thoms. I'm imagining he'll he'll hook the robot. Okay. What I want to do is Oh, and one more thing. Like I don't want to order everything together. So the robot comes once. I want the robot to make several trips. I just want to see the robot deliver the food. Well, the robot has a name. I don't think it was Dora. It was something like that. The Explorer. But he told us that last week, the robot bumped into like one of their other machines. They've got arcade games and pop a shot and a bunch of stuff here. And there was a pretty serious collision Oh, no. With this, I would imagine very expensive robot. But if you get a burger, I think a robot's going to bring it to you. This is what I want. So I'm excited about that. Well, when we get Tommy on in a little bit, we'll have to that's going to be the, we haven't seen him in years. Yeah, we're just going to end up locking in on the road. Hey, man. How are you? That's great. The robot. Right. Tell us about the robot. But I'm excited to get to the bottom of that. But there's been so many things, man. So last night, we were surprised. We're out here with our guys, Condorian Murad, who sponsor our show. You guys hear about them every day, the law firm who makes the show possible and keeps the lights on for us at the station. And they do this road trip every year where they get the boys, their family, you know, together from the law firm and they hit the road. And this year, they were going to Cincinnati and they said, we want you guys to come with us. So they've set everything up, beautiful hotel, amazing accommodations, flew us out here. We were kicking it and what was the equivalent the way I would describe it, Danny, would be like the suite you would hang out in all day before a wedding with all of your buddies. Yes. That's where we watched the four o'clock games yesterday with those guys. And then knowing you're a big pickleball guy, the leader of the trip, Lassi Murad, he said, Hey, I got a surprise for you guys. One of the biggest pickleball venues in America was like 20 minutes away. So at nine PM last night, we drove there and played pickleball for a couple of hours. It was awesome. That venue, I forget what it's called. It's like pickle palace or pickle kingdom, whatever it is, enormous. I think it was actually like pickleville, right? I'm not even kidding. I think it's something like that. It's the biggest pickleball venue I've ever seen certainly. The courts were like professional caliber courts. It was fantastic. I've got to say this right up front. I'm a little annoyed by this, but it's true. I have to give you your flowers. Grant's a little bit of a natural pickleball player. I don't know about that. I do know about that. You're better than you should have been in my mind. Okay, so I don't know if you would take as an insult. That's kind of a little bit of that's not a foreign to compliments, bit of a backhand a compliment. Right. But pretty natural doing it. The shot of the night belonged to you. Thank you. Several games were played good times were had, et cetera. But it's going to sound bad at first, but it's not. There was a ball lofted over grandstand. We're not going to break down pickleville points. I promise you, we know the team plays the game tonight and there's football to discuss. But the ball lofted over grandstand, he kind of left his feet, tried to slam it down, swung and missed. Not one of those like, oh my God, he's swung and missed what a loser kind of plays. But it's like the only way he's going to get it is to try to jump up and get it and it went over his paddle. So he lands, turns around and is surprised to see the ball that has bounced up right by his stomach in this kind of spin around move. The other team had stopped playing because the point was over, but it wasn't. Grant over his head hits it with some English on it, some, actually lands on the end line of the other court and bounces off for a winner. It's one of the 10 greatest shots I've ever seen in the history of pickle ball. And it's all I can think about. I was laying in my bed last night in my comfortable hotel bed at the hotel coming to North, not the regular one, the hotel North coming to. So comfortable. As I shut my little eyes, I thought about that shot. Yeah, I felt good about that. You should feel good about it. I pride myself on my sneaky athleticism. I believe what that's what they say when you're very portly and on the athletic level. Good hands, man. But I appreciate that. I will before we move on from pickle ball, I will just tell people that the Danny Ruyet pickle ball experience was everything that I anticipate. Now to your credit, even though you take pickle ball unbelievably seriously, and to some, I'm not going to say to all, but probably the most way too seriously, you were very complimentary. You were trying to give everyone pointers and tips, which was very nice. One thing happened though, where Danny, as the game went on, would get more and more into it and would really start getting upset if you hit a ball into the net or missed. There were loud, my teammates would do stuff. I think, not me. When you would hit a ball into the net, when you would hit a ball that didn't go where you wanted it to or the spin wasn't just so, you would curse it yourself very loudly. You would apologize to me as if I cared even a little bit. I was too busy trying to see if Kirk and the Falcons were making their way down the field on my cell phone, but you're like, dude, I'm so sorry about that. I should have had that. As if I cared even an Iota, but I had a blast. I have to tell you, as much as I zone, I had a lot of fun. Sorry about it. Sorry about it. The most fun sport there is. But here's my kind of favorite thing that's happened so far. So I flew out earlier than you and Daris. We were all supposed to fly together at about noon one o'clockish yesterday. I didn't want to be in the air during an NFL Sunday. We only get 18 of them. They're so precious. They mean so much to me. So I moved my flight up in the morning to make sure that I landed, so I could either come to Thoms Watch Bar or somewhere else to watch games. Well, I ended up talking to a listener who was seated across for me the entire flight. We're just chopping it up, talking to DC sports, whatever. And when we landed, I told him I was headed to the hotel. He said, oh, I'm going to the Reds game today. I had no idea the Reds were home. When I travel, this is my normal thing. I look and see is the baseball team in that city home. It's the first thing I do. This is to tell you, though, how locked in on the NFL Sunday that I was and just finding a bar, which I'd already located some places with Sunday ticket. I didn't even look to see if the Reds were home. Not a big deal. Final home game of the season, not a particularly good team. I said, oh, who they playing? He goes, well, they're playing the Pirates. And immediately, the radar starts going off in my head. I go. There's no way Paul schemes. I wonder if. So I asked the guy, I'm like, who's pitching? He's like, Oh, I have no idea. And I was like, okay. So I walk, I'm not even off the plane yet. I'm de-plaining MLB.com Pirates Reds. And they're on my phone. That mustachioed man. Paul Skeens is looking me in the face against Hunter Green. Ever heard of him? Just two of the best pitchers in baseball. Come find fastball velocities over 200 miles an hour. Right. Right. Right. Then I said, I can't not go. I'm a go. So I hit my wife up. I'm like, you have no idea what's happening. Six blocks from my hotel today. I tell her it skeens Hunter Green and she's like, you got to go. And I'm like, yeah, but I already got these plans to go to the bar. I got football. I got my fantasy lineup. She's like, if you don't go, I'll be disappointed in you because you're going to whine about it for months. So I went. There's a lady that knows her husband. Five innings. I rolled out when Skeens rolled out. Five innings, nine punches. Couple of hits just unbelievable. He was awesome. So Hunter Green, he was nasty early. They only let him throw three innings. He was coming back from an I L stint. But I walked right across the bar to a sports book sat there in the shadows of the ballpark, watched football all day. I met up with other listeners who had a private room at this place that they had set up with food and drinks. I mean, it's just been a wild couple of days. It's been a blast. We got to think everyone involved. But I got to tell you, Danny, it all culminates the reason we're here. This is a business trip. Business. I hope you brought a sports jacket and a tie. We're not here, particularly winks and fun. This is a business trip for a football game to be played tonight. That's right. This is one of those the opportunity we always hear about this. Like when it's the only game in town, it's the only game on TV, even though tonight there are two, but still in prime time, if there's something special, the mystique of that Monday night football, right? This is one of those opportunities to change the perception. Everybody wants Washington fans have wine for years. And some of it's justified to be honest with you about the league wide perception about how everybody always picks Washington to be 31st in their power rank is for the season starts or this is going to work or this is a failure. A lot of times it doesn't work out. But even when things are good or happening, nobody gives your credit for it. It feels like everybody's against you. You can't get your own players who have been excellent into the hall of fame because the reputation has been so bad. There's a lot of that stuff. Here's how you change the perception. One time when the football and sporting world is watching, not a red zone highlight, not a little bit here and there with the with the seventh team on Fox. This is the country is watching you play football. You don't embarrass yourself. You don't go down there like you actually look the part and dare I say, when a football game look good doing it. Be there in prime time and showcase yourself. That's how you build a couple of those. You stack a few, you change the perception of the organization. They're working hard. Locally, we kind of know it's different than it was before. That's obvious. But if you're in say Cincinnati, Ohio, you're not really plugged into the latest with Josh Harris and Nick rails. You're not really that concerned with Adam Peters and company. I that's Washington. You know, they're always a tire fire. Don't be that. Come out and do something special and people start to believe in you. Well, that's one thing that I have noticed being on the road. And I forgot this because I have not traveled to games and so long when I was on the beat. And I was at every game, but the amount of zoning you deal with. Yeah. And it's very playful because I will say everybody here has been so nice. Like it's just really honestly cool to be in a place where everyone just wants to have a conversation and say hello to you. But the ribbing when someone sees commander's gear or Redskins gear or finds out that you're here for the football game. What a laughing stock this organization is to your point around the country. And I knew that already. But it's a little bit jarring. I thought maybe, you know, a year of deposits in the bank without Dan Snyder assaulting or harassing allegedly anybody or losing football games, maybe would have done them some good. But they still got some work to do clearly to get their balance sheet totally back to zero. But to that point, one of the ways that you can fix that is just winning football games and competing and actually looking competent. And I was joking about the, you know, watching the Falcons and the Chief lawyer playing pickleball last night Atlanta lost the game at home to Kansas City. Very respectable performance, right? But just regular football things. Yeah. Underdog team had the ball laid. If a PI penalty is called, it's a different game, maybe who knows. But you win, you lose all the time as football. Yes. That's not what this team does. This team plays the Eagles and Donovan McNabb has 11 touchdowns or Michael Vick wins the MVP award in one night and they score on an 88 yard touchdown because your safety gets torched after you got into a pregame fight with the guy that torched them. Like it's always so embarrassing and so bad. And over the years, I would say it is trended a little bit more professional in prime time. But only when it is like there are still those Mulligan games you went back like the 5614 to the Cowboys Thursday night football with the Bears last year was just a curb stomping that was disgusting. There's enough of those still that it's no wonder that people in these other markets laugh about you because the one or two times a year they see you, you'll lose them by 20. That's my point is that there's no hiding here. So that can be good and bad. And my point always, when I, when the schedule comes out and I covetch about prime time games, I don't think we're ready. I don't think that's that was been my feeling for a while, right? I don't think we're ready to show the house yet. It's it's there's still some renovations to be done. There's still some dust still some years will never be ready. I disagree with that. I'd like I'd like a like six months of good football play first. And I go, Hey, now we can do that. Like if I've got a 10 win team on my hands, let's play on prime time and get someone that's just okay. My fascination tonight, Danny, is two fold along what we're talking about. And are we ready as a market is this team ready as a club to just get a little respect. I have two areas of this game where I'm just completely fixated. Number one is obviously Jaden Daniels. His first chance on prime time on Monday night on this stage to be a star. Yeah, mega deposit towards rookie of the year type stuff tonight. Absolutely. You go out and you combine for three touchdowns in a win. You take a massive leap toward being the offensive rookie of the year. There's a discussion about you in the next six, seven weeks is going to benefit from this one night of work over three hours of football, but also just having a guy, which they haven't in a long time, who is capable of being an equalizer, Denzel Washington style, right? Being a fixer, just oh, everything went bad on that play. Don't worry, I just got you 11 because I ran around the corner fast than everybody else. Like maybe this is a coming out party kind of night for Daniels. I'll leave that open as a possibility. The other thing is I am fascinated by the secondary and how they're going to scheme up some way to slow the Bengals wide receivers down. Because if you just line up and cover them, you will get torched all night long. There's not a corner in the room. Benjamin St. Juice being the best of them that can cover Jamar Chase. There's not a corner in the room probably that could lock up T Higgins, although because of his length and size, I actually kind of like the St. Juice Higgins match up a little bit. But this has to be a Joe White Jr. Dan Quingay. You've got to figure out a way with inferior personnel to not be exploited and taken advantage of. And I think that's going to be really, really intriguing. Yeah, because through the first couple of weeks, it hadn't been good in that spot. And now on paper, you've got, you know, the best receiving cord that you've played here, right? Again, who knows what Higgins is going to be without having all the, you know, sea legs underneath them. And, you know, Jamar Chase hasn't got going yet, but there's some pelts on the wall there for Chase, where you know he's good and the breakout is coming. They haven't turned in very good work through a couple of games. I'm with you on the under-talented spot, but even still, you know, concoct something so you're not the worst. Can concoct something so that it's just okay or you at least make it somewhat challenging for your opponent, who's going to get theirs anyway, but it can't be that easy like it's been through a couple of games. You can't have Malik neighbors going, you know, 10 for 160, whatever the hell he did, last week. And it should have been even more. Find some way to challenge these guys. And I don't know what that is. I don't know, you know, we were talking about this years ago with like the Nationals bullpen, when a couple guys were hurt, nobody was effective. Like no matter who Dave Yamartina picks up the phone to ask to warm up, it's not a good option. There are no good options right now. And that secondary, we're arguing this thing where we're trying to find the least bad. Get the ball out of the quarterback's hands, you know, dial that up. Yeah, exactly. Have them quick game. Do something else. Because what's what's caught on through two games, ain't it? He's Danny. I'm Grant. You're listening to the fan. We got Jay Gruden on the show today to break the matchup down at five. We'll go around the NFL from week three with him as well. And then at six o'clock, we'll really dive deep into the X's and the O's with Logan Paulson, who's going to stop by ahead of kickoff tonight. It's a Monday night matchup between the commanders and the Bengals. Next, let's get into this. Washington was the biggest underdog in the entire league in this week of football and this slate of games. Why do you think that is? Why is the line so crooked? Are they that bad? Are the Bengals that good despite their own two record? And what do you think the odds makers, the experts, so to speak, are suggesting with such a lopsided line? We'll get into that next on Grant and Danny here on the fan. Grant and Danny coming your way live on the fan. We will be at the Bengals and the commanders in Cincinnati tonight. We're in Lawrenceburg, Indiana right now at Thoms Watch Bar. A sports book at the Hollywood casino friendly accommodations, watching Bella the robot deliver food around the bar, which we're excited about. And we are here thanks to our friends Condoria and Murad. They sponsor our show every single day and they brought us with them on the road. They'll help you update your last will and test them and set up a trust for you, your family schedule, a free consultation with our estate planning attorneys today by visiting kmloyers.com. Be sure to tell them the GND sent you so that you can get a discount. That's kmloyers.com. Danny, I mentioned yesterday I landed, found out the Reds were playing the pirates and Paul Skeens was pitching. So the whole day got audible. I had to go over and watch baseball at Great American ballpark. I had not been there since the all-star game in 2015. I think that's when it was about nine years ago. Just such an immaculate gorgeous ball bar. That's awesome. This morning, we were surprised by our gracious host. And what Seem told us, hey, we got a little surprise for everyone. We're going over to GAB. We got a private tour. So we went downstairs. We went on the field and the dugout. Walked the whole ballpark saw all there is to offer. It is so nice. It was built in 2003. Shortest porch in all of baseball and right field. They call it Great American small park, but got a nice history of baseball and Cincinnati as well. We were hanging out in the Hall of Fame, which outside of Cooperstown, they have the most impressive baseball Hall of Fame for any team. Daris and I were like sitting in this exhibit where we were calling play-by-play over highlights and we were at a desk doing highlights like we were sports center anchors. I mean, it was a blast. That ballpark is great. There's a number of things that are really cool. There's a lot of attention to detail, a lot of little small things that you wouldn't know unless you knew, right? The dimensions, for example. The original field that the red stockings played on like 115 years ago, one of the straightaway left field depths is because of that. Center field is because of what Riverfront Stadium was and all these little cool little kitschy things, the nod to history. Because there's so much depth in history with this organization in Cincinnati, they kind of made sure to take care of that. I mean, several iterations of great teams. I of course remember vividly the 1990 team at the Oakland A's. They were awesome. But the big red machine, of course. I mean, there's all sorts of things that are here. For example, the last bat that Chula Show Jackson used, which looks like a chair leg because it was the style of the time and the last ball that he hit. Which is worth million dollars. Millions of dollars, at least on open auction are there. But just phenomenal, man. Really, really cool tour. And that was neat. And there's so many more thoughtful designs and things that you can do, I thought, than that's Parcass. You know, just to kind of compare and contrast it to where it's like, for example, you're, you're in the stadium, you go, I'm a little hot. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go to this club section that you could just go to, not if you have club tickets, but you can just pay a little bit and go to town and get kind of the same club experience. Well, before we even went into the ballpark, there were so many things to do for kids and, frankly, just families. Like when you get into the park before the seating, in the concourse area, with, you know, slides that kids could go down at the playground like the master, but yeah, batting cages and whistle ball field, Larry, and you were saying there, it's like, oh boy, now I can see why people say that's Parc's a little bit basic. Yeah, yeah, as a, as a stadium guy is Ryan knows, me being the stadium guy of the show. The resident stadium guy, that'd be correct on the program. Yes, it's just, I always see these lists where Nat's Park kind of ranked somewhere between say 20 to 20 to 30. And it's always disappointing. I'm like, I like Nat's Park. That's Park's fine. Now I see why the amount of things that you could do at Great American Ballpark was just unbelievable. We were just talking about the Hall of Fame that we went into. The guy that was giving us the tour, there's probably like, I don't know, 80 plaques of different Hall of Famers. And he's like, you guys pick one. And we're like Pete Rose. He picks Pete Rose. Pete Rose's plaque lights up the room dims. And then it plays this video around the entire room. Every player you ever want on the red. And one of the cool things just to jump in on that is they had Reds history, obviously, because it's a Reds Museum, but they also had like a jersey of, you know, Carl Yostremsky from the World Series that they, you know, a game that they lost, or they had an Oakland A's jersey from a World Series that they lost in the in the 70s and the Orioles jersey that they lost in 1970. All these kinds of different things where they go, this happened. This is the history of the ball club. There's some of it's not that great. We won plenty. Obviously the big red machine, but we also lost some of these games. Here's some artifacts from that just stuff like that. I just thought was really cool, really well done. Yeah, the tour was outstanding. And it was just I'm a ballpark tour mark. I've done Wrigley and Fenwen. Most of those like bigger historical iconic ballparks went to AT&T out in San Francisco. But to get to see the behind the scenes was really neat and was particularly funny today was the Reds fired their manager, David Bell yesterday. Yes. So their general manager, Nick Kroll, not to be confused with. Committee of Nick Kroll. Nick Kroll, who's funny, not a manager. But Nick Kroll was doing a press conference that we walk past. We're like all shtick it up and being loud and someone's like, shush, shush. And all the media are asking him questions right next to us, because David Bell's next door like packing up his boxes probably in the managerial office where he got fired. And one thing I will say is that no member of the show has ever disrupted a baseball press conference. That's never happened. Don't look it up. Am I bothering you guys? Balling you guys? Am I bothering you? Balling you? This was the second time in a second market with a second person at the mic that that is now happened, which is crazy. But we'll be sprinkling in some of the fun we're having here in Cincinnati as we go. But let's get back to football. The commanders and the Bengals tonight kickoff is a little under six hours away now at Paycore. I'm just going to call it Paul Brown because the naming rights thing, it's just too hard to keep up with and also it doesn't sound right. And it's about me, right? Isn't it? Or no? Yeah, it's about your experience, I think. For me, it's too much like and also there's a company that I'm familiar with called Paycom. I don't know who's better. I'm not here to tell you about different companies. This isn't like a stock market show, but I want to call it Paycom so bad that I've heard of that and it's not it. So now I can't I just can't do it. Well, actually, one more thing on the stadiums. I am jealous of and this I think relates to DC and you guys back home pretty immensely. When we talk all the time about what the next stadium is going to be and where it's going to be, there is something awesome about something we'll never have in DC, which is just everything being next to each other. Like we go across this bridge from Kentucky into Cincinnati. It's actually the first suspension bridge ever built in America, interestingly enough. We found that out from Bob on our tour. That's right. I think the I think the inventor was a guy named Jim suspension. A lot of people don't know that. Bob may have invented it actually. He was certainly around when it got invented. Bob catch a lot of shrapnel. Bob's not young, but damn, Bob was so good to us. Why are you doing? Bob is a nice man. He really is. I'm just saying he remembers when that big bridge was like, I remember I just turned 19 and the bridge. I will tell you though, one bit of shake about Bob, I know we have so much talk about it. Did the drive across that bridge to his retirement party on its first day? It's like I use my Flintstones card to get there, but the what was so funny is like the tours happening. It's like a bunch of different guys. Bob knew he didn't move that fast. He did. So when he was done talking about the specific thing, he was already 100 feet down the hallway, shuffling to the next thing while we looked at there. Yeah, knowing that we were going to catch up for the next stop. It's strategic. Yeah, Bob knew his apartment. But anyway, right there on the banks of the Ohio River, I'm going to assume, you've got the ballpark and right across basically this nice little park is the Bengal Stadium. You can hit a golf ball from one to the other with a couple of swings probably. And it's just gorgeous. There's nothing but bars and restaurants and it's really nice downtown vibe. People were already starting to tailgate. When we left that area today at around 1130 to come out to broadcast, they were already setting up shop. So just a really cool vibe and something to think about as we get closer to finding out how the commanders are going to align DC for their stadium or wherever it is that they end up. But what's your take on why they are such heavy underdogs today and why they've gotten so little chance to actually impress, surprise and knock off the Bengal. So I think it's a couple of reasons. One, I think there's a perception because Cincinnati has a pattern of this, right, where they've started off very poorly and gotten right. Now it's usually taking them a little bit longer to get right. But I think I think, you know, automakers were pretty encouraged by what Cincinnati put on film this past weekend Kansas City. Taking the defending Super Bowl champ, probably the best team in the NFL are close to it. Right to the end, having a chance to win that game, you know, PI call goes their way. Maybe they do, right? So I think that's a big part of it is Cincinnati now kind of the sleeping giant ready to be one of the contenders, one of the powers in the AFC. I think the second part is the view of the Ottomac, whether you agree or disagree. But I think this is what they think is that what Washington did as progressive as as a growth moment or look how much better they looked in week number two than week number one is fraudulent because the giants are garbage. Now, I know the Giants played well this past weekend. So how much does that hold? But I think the view was that defensively the Giants are so atrocious that they let Washington do an awful lot. And that's not going to be the case on a week in week out basis. And they don't take Washington, who's under talented a lot of spots is really ready to compete with one of the teams that might be a power in the AFC. I think that's I think that's the formula. I'm going to contradict myself a little bit here, actually, Danny, because I know that what I'm about to say is silly because this is such a week to week matchup driven league that you really shouldn't care that much about what has previously happened. Like the example is the Broncos in the bucks yesterday. That's the one Denver dominated Tampa Bay destroyed and pummeled survivor pools. I'll give you Vikings, even though they've been playing really well. Great defense. Donald's balling out. O'Connell's in his bag. They're three and oh, but they destroyed the Texans. There were match ups that got exploited. Like this is unpredictable. And I understand that. And you could say, well, the Bengals, what they've done over the first two weeks since T Higgins is not going to be relevant today. Maybe. I just know that in week one, as the biggest favorite at home in all the football, they laid a complete egg in the Patriots beat him. I know that in week two, they did some pretty good things. They all, you know, they almost beat the Chiefs. So did the Falcons last night who lost two offensive linemen during the game. I don't know how good the Chiefs have been so far if that makes sense. I know what their record is. I know they're three and oh, but if you're asking me like on a one to 10 scale, how impressed am I by the Bengals through two games? It's a three, you know, or two. So to just give them that credit of, oh, well, you're going to Cincinnati. You mean the place the Patriots just won in a couple of weeks ago with Jacobi Brissette at quarterback? You're going narrow. You've got no shot. It's not about Washington for me. Maybe it should be. Maybe I'm not taking into account enough how bad the commander secondary is and how bad the matchup is for them. But it's about the Bengals. I just, I don't think they've done anything to warrant an endorsement or some big vote of confidence yet that the expectations haven't yet this year, but the expectation seems like this is the night where they have their get right game. They're coming out party burrow throws for three bills, Higgins goes for 80 chase goes for 120. And if that happens, I'll come in tomorrow and be like, yeah, I'm dumb. Sorry guys. I was wrong. And it very well might, by the way, I'm not saying it can, but that is the expectation. And I don't know what you've seen so far to think that they're on the precipice of getting it right. Well, again, it's different years where they've done this, right? And I'm agreeing with you this year. They have not turned in the work yet. Okay, they have it. And I think that's indisputable, but there are pelts on the wall from years past where they've started off kind of sluggish kind of slow and been a real threat, you know, the non burrow injury division, right? This is an AFC Championship caliber team that's done it a couple of times. And they start off, they play much better football as the year progresses. A lot of this still, I think, is also our preseason expectations versus, you know, reality confirmation bias, all those things that usually go into these sorts of deals. When a team plays well, that we expect to be good, we go, yeah, it's because they're good. When a team plays well that we don't think it's good, we go, it's a fluke or it's weird. Like we were doing with Tampa Bay after a couple weeks now, no one's really sure what to think. But we're also jumbled up. It's so muddled early on. I think this is this is a deference to what since that he has done in previous years with larger the same contingent versus what they've done this year because you're 100% right. What they've done this year does not say this is a juggernaut that can't be beat. There is something to Higgins maybe being the key to unlocking the whole thing. I want to talk to Logan about this later in the show, but it is very obvious that teams have just said Jamar Chase is not being you. They have doubled him. They haven't bracketed him. They've sent me, you watch it play after play after play. He never gets man coverage. It's going to be a lot harder to do that tonight with T Higgins. Now maybe you do that anyway, because he's faster and more explosive. But if you do, then T Higgins should be able to go catch seven, eight, nine balls at 12 to 15 yards a pop and have a big game in his own right. So maybe Higgins is just the key to getting the whole thing locked in for Washington. Why do you guys think they are such big underdogs and what kind of a chance do you give them tonight? How do you feel about the commanders as you get ready for Monday night football? We'll open up the MGM National Harbor listener lines at 800-636-1067 next that's 800-636-1067 on Grant and Danny on the fan. We're all taking out our phones like Shouhei Otani is at the plate. She's here, ladies and gentlemen. Bella the robot is making her way over to us with our food. Tommy with a special delivery. Thank you, Bella. Daris will get a video for us. I'll have to post it in a little bit. We'll let you know where you can check out Bella the robot who's hanging out with us today at the Hollywood casino here at Thoms Watch Bar in Lawrenceburg. We're Grant and Danny. You're listening to the fan. It's a Monday ahead of Monday night football. A burgundy and gold game day presented by Rude is your cooling system letting you down. Score a touchdown with Rude and experience pick performance. Dominate the season with unmatched cooling power and visit ruud.com if it ain't Rude, it ain't right. You heard the Derek Henry highlight coming into the segment before we hit the phones here. Just wanted to point out yesterday in the division, Danny. Two in one, the teams in the NFC East with the loan loss coming by the Dallas Cowboys to the Baltimore Ravens in that game. The Cowboys despite a mad scramble to get back into things. That was amazing. Made it a contest 28-25 final. They scored the last three scores of the game. It was 28-6 at one point. They gave up 151 to Henry who they chose not to sign and wanted to play in Dallas. 87 on the ground to Lamar Jackson. They just got ran all over. Yes, they did. They got pushed around in that one. One of the dudes on the strip with friends with our buddy's Condorian Murad is a Cowboys fan and very nice guy but generally just sort of as the typical insufferable Cowboys fan where every negative play that happens is the end of the world. Every positive play we're winning the Super Bowl and the wild fluctuations therein. But that was a wild ride last night when Dallas got the outside kick and was coming back etc. But for 90% of that game they were just dominated by a Baltimore team that was 10,000 times more physical. The Giants beat the Cleveland Browns. Actually, really, I thought beat them in a submission early and then they ended up just hanging on. It was a 21-15 final. But Malik Neighbors is the real deal. I absolutely love the guy I'm obsessed with the former LSU Tiger. This is Jaden Daniels running mate last year as Daniels had the 50 touchdown four-pick season at LSU. Neighbors 12 targets eight grabs 78 yards and two touchdowns for the Giants. And maybe the luckiest winner certainly in the division and perhaps in football, the Eagles stunned the Saints in New Orleans 15 to 12. I say that because New Orleans took the lead with two minutes to play on a Chris Alave 13 yard touchdown. The Eagles on their subsequent drive had a third and 16. And on that play two Saints ran into each other against a mesh concept leaving not that fast Dallas Goddard to rumble for almost 70 yards. He looked real comfortable just flying down the football field. Set up the game-winning touchdown for Saquon Barkley from four yards out with under a minute to go. Derek Carr got the ball back through an interception final score 15-12. So the Eagles are two and one. The Giants are one and two. So are the Cowboys. If Washington can beat the Bengals tonight, they would be tied with Philly at two and one, but they would have the tiebreaker by way of a division win. I know you love this bit Danny. They would be the first place commanders going into week. They would be first place in the division. I will tell you that again, this is what's so funny about this league is, you know, none of the divisions are lining up the way we thought they were as of a few weeks ago. I suppose Buffalo being at the top was pretty reasonable. But how many people were picking Pittsburgh? How many people were picking Seattle to be three and oh and you know San Francisco to be one and two in last place in the NFC West, the NFC South New Orleans after that hard luck loss that you just referenced Minnesota's in first place. So it is Topsy Turvey here early on. He's Danny. I'm Grant. You're listening to the fan. All right. Let's get to the phones. 800-636-1067 as they come in on tonight's commander's Bengals game. We'll start with Carlos in Tacoma Park on G&D. Carlos, what do you make of tonight's matchup? Hey guys, it's actually Carlos from Surinapart, but it's fine. I completely understand. I will record this Joe Burrow have or this Jamal Chase have for tonight that needs to be broken. That could be broken because all of a sudden flashbacks. When Drew Brees broke the record in one quarter and that's just how I feel. Now Carlos, are you saying that because we traveled the last time as a show we were on the road for a Monday night game was for that New Orleans game. I think that's what he said. And they got completely embarrassed. Their pants pulled down and breeze through for 19 million yards. No, no, I'm saying that because we're just the Kirk cousins of the NFL team of NFL teams when it comes to practice. I mean, but I have a question for Grant somebody for Danny or Danny yesterday night when they reveal the Arthur blank. Momoa, you know, ring of fame when he was walking out the field. And when they presented it. I think you wanted to do some Arthur Blanket. I'm gonna tip my cap regardless. I don't know where he was going with it, but we got through it. I think you're okay. Arthur blank got honored last night. Yeah, he's fine. Right. It's embarrassing. Everyone should treat it like that, but I'll be fine. I still have a, you know, a breakfast this morning, you know, I went on a ball park tour. I'm going to the game tonight. Like I don't have to stop my life, but I can acknowledge when something is pathetic and ridiculous. And that is Bell and the robot showed up. You've got your meal. I'm set. Now I am. This is not for radio, but I am going to ask you one favor. What's that? I would love one potato skin. Oh my god, really? Yeah, absolutely not. But that's a great question. You have five. Yep. With your sandwich. Yep. With your onion rings. Yep. I would like one potato skin, please. No. Thank you. No problem. I'm happy to help. Top of the hour, which commander's player will break out tonight? Who's going to have a big game? You're listening to Grant and Danny. We are on the road getting ready for Monday night football on the fan.