Speaker 1: So now nine o two to play in the overtime.
Speaker 1: London off the field. Here's Mooney in motion with Cousins,
Speaker 1: and I gotta gun it. And it's called Caderyl Hodge.
Speaker 1: Thirty five five pive home safely.
Speaker 2: Oh my gunness, sucko to the gate, caderrel, Was you serious?
Speaker 1: A walk off for Carderyl Hodge and the Falcons.
Speaker 3: Welcome to NFL Daily. Yes, uh, we are serious. Kirk
Speaker 3: Cousins just did that thirty six to thirty. The Falcons
Speaker 3: get it done in overtime. That was West Durham on
Speaker 3: w z g C. I am here tonight in Dave
Speaker 3: Archer two, by the way, joined by a legend of
Speaker 3: the game, one of the best players in Bucks history.
Speaker 4: He's shaking his head right now.
Speaker 5: Gerald.
Speaker 3: I wanted to deliver a better ending for your Buccaneers here,
Speaker 3: but that was one hell of a football game they
Speaker 3: lost tonight.
Speaker 5: Sorry about that, man.
Speaker 2: We as Buccaneers just don't have great fortune on Thursday
Speaker 2: night versus the Falcons.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 2: I said it before the game. I had us picked,
Speaker 2: but for some reason on Thursday night versus these freaking Falcons, man,
Speaker 2: there's something about this. Kirk Cousins Falcons team in overtime.
Speaker 2: But it's every Kirk Cousins team.
Speaker 3: It was back when he was with Washington, it's back
Speaker 3: obviously with Minnesota. It's these crazy primetime games he played.
Speaker 3: The difference is lately he's been winning them. What a
Speaker 3: wild ending to this game.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you hate to see it as a buccaneer, buccaneer fan, player, coach, whatever,
Speaker 2: you hate to see the way it ended. But as
Speaker 2: a fan of football, freaking incredible game.
Speaker 5: What a way to end it. Man, Atlanta fought for
Speaker 5: that one. I give him that. You lose those type,
Speaker 5: you just gotta let them have it.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 5: They earned that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is seriously testing your professionalism having to come
Speaker 3: on right after.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. But I'm a professional, Joe. I gotta
Speaker 2: do what I gotta do.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Of course.
Speaker 3: Gerald McCoy on Game Day Morning on NFL Network, the
Speaker 3: great podcast that he has with Kyle Van Noy, He's
Speaker 3: popping out on Gil's arena over an underdog. So he
Speaker 3: is doing it all and yet we're gonna break down
Speaker 3: this game bit by bit, but we got to start
Speaker 3: at the end. And I think the end of regulation
Speaker 3: is what strikes me for a second, Falcons fans think
Speaker 3: Jesse Bates did it once again.
Speaker 4: He saved our team.
Speaker 3: This guy, who's one of the best defensive players at
Speaker 3: safety i've ever seen, forces a fumble with the peanut
Speaker 3: punch while the Buccaneers are driving up three with under
Speaker 3: three minutes to go or so and gives the Falcons
Speaker 3: another chance. And you think, oh, that's gonna be the
Speaker 3: key play. But what do the Falcons do. We don't
Speaker 3: go three and out, they go four and out, they
Speaker 3: go backwards, They go for it on fourth and fifteen,
Speaker 3: and your former teammate, the ageless Levante David picks off
Speaker 3: a pass. At that point, what are you thinking as
Speaker 3: a as a as a Bucks fan, not a fan
Speaker 3: as this a Buck?
Speaker 2: Oh well, one, Lavonte is freaking incredible, you know, that's
Speaker 2: what he does, very timely plays. And he was due
Speaker 2: for one. Tay was due for a pick. But you know,
Speaker 2: in that instance, you're like, well, all right, we're good
Speaker 2: to go. Here we go to LaMonte. Yeah he did it, and.
Speaker 3: Then that yes, then that has you got your cousins
Speaker 3: on the screen behind you. Let's actually listen to our
Speaker 3: friend Jeene Decker house call of that Levante David interception,
Speaker 3: which I thought was going to be the call.
Speaker 4: We went into this highlight with well the.
Speaker 8: Falcon fig fourth down for the third time tonight. They
Speaker 8: need to reach the thirty five yard line. Buck's guilty
Speaker 8: of a pass with the Ferris. The last sleeve was
Speaker 8: four for low dropping back to those Kirk cousins. Kirk Cousins,
Speaker 8: Hashton throws of.
Speaker 4: All up man.
Speaker 1: It's an aceping picked off by Fonte David.
Speaker 7: Now the Buccaneers have the football.
Speaker 4: First takeaway by the Buccaneers tonight. Ponte David answers the
Speaker 4: bell again.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's w f US and that helps remind me
Speaker 3: there's under a minute and fifty seconds left at that point.
Speaker 3: I thought it was the smart decision by Raheem Morris
Speaker 3: to go for his fourth down decisions in the in
Speaker 3: this game, I think we're good overall and mostly helped him.
Speaker 3: He went for a fourth and three that led to
Speaker 3: a field goal around midfield. In the second half, he
Speaker 3: knew it was an offensive game. He went for another
Speaker 3: fourth down in the red zone. I think that led
Speaker 3: directly to a touchdown when when most people probably would
Speaker 3: have taken the points in a situation where they could
Speaker 3: have tied it up, and then there he goes for
Speaker 3: I think that makes sense because it gives you two
Speaker 3: chances to win the game. And I go back to
Speaker 3: this point because you just can't go backwards at that point.
Speaker 3: And to me, of all the mistakes you could point out,
Speaker 3: because this was a great offensive game for the most part,
Speaker 3: from both these teams, both these quarterbacks, they don't go anywhere.
Speaker 3: They throw a pass that goes a little backwards and
Speaker 3: then they have a holding call which actually knocks them
Speaker 3: out of field goal range. It was tough to see, Gerald,
Speaker 3: because your offense is looking awesome, Baker Mayfield is playing great,
Speaker 3: and Liam Cohen, your offensive coordinator, has been on when
Speaker 3: the last couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: I spoke about before the game, I did a couple
Speaker 2: of interviews before the game, and I said that the
Speaker 2: good teams find a way to win, and the Buccaneers
Speaker 2: have been on the wrong end of these too many times.
Speaker 2: And what happens is is at the end of the games,
Speaker 2: technique time is where you do your job and you
Speaker 2: can't have untimely penalties and everybody has to do their
Speaker 2: job and the technique has to be has to be right. Man,
Speaker 2: It's just untimely things can cause you to lose games.
Speaker 2: And that's why they say the NFL is a game
Speaker 2: of inches, because one wrong decision, one wrong step to
Speaker 2: the right, one interception, one holding, and the game changes.
Speaker 5: And that's what happened.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's really crazy because you train all offseason, you
Speaker 3: have all these injuries in this game. You train all
Speaker 3: week and then yeah, it just comes down to a
Speaker 3: couple little things that drive I was talking about. Rashid
Speaker 3: White loses three yards, had a big run in this game,
Speaker 3: but they the running game was a little up and down.
Speaker 3: Bucky Irving had that fumble. He then picks up seven yards.
Speaker 3: But you have a penalty on your first round pick,
Speaker 3: Graham Barton, and then they throw another pass the Rashid
Speaker 3: right that loses yardage and they kick it off at
Speaker 3: that point, I mean they punt it away. At that point,
Speaker 3: the Falcons have the ball at the twenty with no timeouts,
Speaker 3: eating three to tie Kirk Cousins, who, by the way,
Speaker 3: set an all time record for Falcons passing yards with
Speaker 3: five hundred and nine yards.
Speaker 2: Yes, like we wouldn't make the proper adjustments. I don't
Speaker 2: know what the heck we was doing. He was finding
Speaker 2: those holes in our own all night, all night, and
Speaker 2: we watched what he just did a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: ago to Philly, and same thing is.
Speaker 3: This one was a little different though, because man, he
Speaker 3: he looked like he looked like a different Kirk, because
Speaker 3: again it's it's all out of the pistol, it's all
Speaker 3: in shotgun and it's not what you used to him
Speaker 3: with play action and under center. But he was thrown
Speaker 3: it into some tight windows a lot of times. I
Speaker 3: was like, that's good coverage and those are just good
Speaker 3: throws that he had some great anticipation. Darnell Mooney dropped
Speaker 3: a huge one in the fourth corner that looked like
Speaker 3: a big play, but a lot of great throws into
Speaker 3: tight windows. Drake London had a monster game. My guy
Speaker 3: from two lane. Darnell Mooney goes nine for one oh
Speaker 3: five and two touchdowns. I think gets one fifty four.
Speaker 3: But there's Kirk Cousins with the ball at the twenty
Speaker 3: when he has it there in about a minute twenty left,
Speaker 3: no timeouts.
Speaker 5: What are you thinking?
Speaker 4: Are you confident your bucks defense is going to stop him?
Speaker 2: If I'm being honest, No, I mean freaky ain't stop
Speaker 2: them all game. So you know, at that point, you
Speaker 2: just you want to you know, sacks their drive killers.
Speaker 5: You know, and.
Speaker 2: I said before the game in the interview that Kirk
Speaker 2: is one of those people who are flammable and that
Speaker 2: place is extremely electric. So if you let a guy
Speaker 2: like Kirk Cousins gets comfortable and he gets relaxed in
Speaker 2: what he's doing, he'll kill you. Five hundred and nine
Speaker 2: yards ago, we see, is you gotta what I said
Speaker 2: should happen. They got to get Kirk Cousins uncomfortable early,
Speaker 2: get him, get them out of his rhythm. Okay, get
Speaker 2: him uncomfortable, get them moving. That's when Kurt starts to
Speaker 2: make bad decisions. That's when Kurt starts to get flushed
Speaker 2: and be all over the plays. He never got uncomfortable tonight,
Speaker 2: so you go into a final drive where he needs
Speaker 2: to get a field goal. I'm not overly confident that
Speaker 2: we're gonna get this stop now. I'm wishing and hoping,
Speaker 2: but overly confident.
Speaker 9: No.
Speaker 4: I was now and they had just lost Yayad Diabbi.
Speaker 3: It's worth pointing out, Jordan Whitehead, their safety got hurt
Speaker 3: in this game. They came into it already shorthanded, missing
Speaker 3: a handful of players. Elijah Cansey, Antoine Winfield, we're talking
Speaker 3: about the best Bucks player. So I think if you're
Speaker 3: a Bucks backer, there's someb positives here that you're gonna
Speaker 3: get healthier on defense and your offense is looking great.
Speaker 3: But you're feeling even better if you're a Falcons fan,
Speaker 3: because you've managed the beginning part of this season, which
Speaker 3: was very challenging well, especially with these late comebacks in primetime,
Speaker 3: I would say, okay. So in that drive, Cousins eventually
Speaker 3: he has a couple of short passes, one to Mooney,
Speaker 3: one to Pitts, one to McLeod Then he gets the
Speaker 3: ball around midfield, third and one twenty one seconds left.
Speaker 3: He throws it in completion where Zion McCollum, who's been
Speaker 3: great all season, bats the ball down. I'm thinking there's
Speaker 3: only twelve seconds left. They are in deep trouble. Let's
Speaker 3: listen to the play call there because most of us
Speaker 3: watching are thinking they have to go to the sideline here. Instead,
Speaker 3: they go over the middle.
Speaker 1: Snap to Cousins, He's looking to cut it loose quick
Speaker 1: does in the middle of the field. That's London eight
Speaker 1: second seven six, Atlanta runs to the line. Nowmosle up
Speaker 1: over the football free.
Speaker 4: To spike it.
Speaker 5: They did it with.
Speaker 4: One to go.
Speaker 3: Wow, that to me was the play right there. I
Speaker 3: was expecting the defensive players just kind of get in
Speaker 3: the way. I know they didn't want to get a
Speaker 3: penalty or anything, but that thing happened fast.
Speaker 2: Gerald, I get that, but you gotta do something like
Speaker 2: will you tackle him? Just hold him for a second,
Speaker 2: because you know you only got a few seconds. They
Speaker 2: have no timeouts.
Speaker 5: Just hold him for just to sake, just lay on him.
Speaker 2: On a regular play, if you lay on a guy
Speaker 2: for too long, nobody pays any attention.
Speaker 5: So do the same.
Speaker 2: Is like, he still has to get his he still
Speaker 2: has to get his leg free, and then boom we
Speaker 2: got it.
Speaker 5: But again, Atlanta earned this one.
Speaker 2: They earned us when we didn't do what was necessary
Speaker 2: to win the game. And that was another example of
Speaker 2: you know, one second that it was absolutely crazy. We've
Speaker 2: got a comment. If you are watching live on YouTube, yes,
Speaker 2: send us some comments. Andre Kuna says, Dude, this is
Speaker 2: amazing having a former player live react to the game.
Speaker 3: So proud of you, Greg, I mean, I'm proud to
Speaker 3: have on Gerald too that you know a great buck.
Speaker 4: Did they put you in the Ring of Honnor yet
Speaker 4: they got to get on that? I don't even know.
Speaker 3: I would I would love if they did. Three time
Speaker 3: All Pro. You know, one of the best defensive tackles
Speaker 3: of the last two decades, Gerald McCoy and someone I
Speaker 3: really enjoyed watching. But I gotta in mit, Jerald. The
Speaker 3: initial kernel of this idea to have you on actually
Speaker 3: came on a morning I was on the couch with
Speaker 3: my son and I'm thinking, I got to get someone
Speaker 3: for that Falcons Bucks game. I was nine years old
Speaker 3: and my boy Walker, he goes, you gotta get Gerald.
Speaker 3: I was like Jerald. I was like, oh, yeah, that
Speaker 3: would be great. And I'm like, you're on a first
Speaker 3: name basis with him.
Speaker 4: I didn't know that.
Speaker 3: He's like, oh, I love Gerald, He's my favorite. On
Speaker 3: game day morning, I'm at work at that point, I
Speaker 3: love it a Walker, that's my guy. Yeah, and we're
Speaker 3: actually we might hear from Walker a little later. So
Speaker 3: young way Coup at that point, I'm circling back to
Speaker 3: the end of regulation nails a deep kick. It was
Speaker 3: an up and down night for Coup. He missed a
Speaker 3: short one early and then he hits the long one
Speaker 3: to send it to overtime. He also had a field
Speaker 3: goal blocked in a situation where I thought maybe Raheem
Speaker 3: Morris would go for it on fourth and sixth in
Speaker 3: the second half. I mean, there were so many ups
Speaker 3: and downs in this game when when you're a player
Speaker 3: like in the game, and there's so many swings of
Speaker 3: who's in control, and the Bucks were mostly in control
Speaker 3: of this game, but it was going back and forth
Speaker 3: in that fourth quarter. Are you guys like riding that
Speaker 3: roller coaster or how does that feel? Because there are
Speaker 3: so many different moments in this game where I was like, oh,
Speaker 3: Falcons are going to lose, Oh Falcons are going to win.
Speaker 5: No, you can't, man, you you have to.
Speaker 2: Stay even kell because this game of momentum shifts, you know,
Speaker 2: and if you ride the wave then mentally one it'll
Speaker 2: drain you for sure. So by the time the game is,
Speaker 2: when it's crunch time you need to be at your best,
Speaker 2: you'd be so mentally drained because you're riding a wave
Speaker 2: of emotions. You can't do it. You gotta stay even
Speaker 2: kill regardless of what happens. Is next play, next play interception,
Speaker 2: next play sac next play incomplete, next play, first down,
Speaker 2: next play, So the next play mentality, you have a
Speaker 2: next man up mentality, So if somebody goes down, next
Speaker 2: man up, that's how you got to play the game
Speaker 2: or two is over. So the fans they can ride
Speaker 2: the way with emotions. We're we as players, we're allowed,
Speaker 2: but we shouldn't. Yeah, so technically we're not allowed to.
Speaker 3: Right, And they like there were just so many ups
Speaker 3: and downs. You go back to the first half, and
Speaker 3: to me, the story of the game at the time
Speaker 3: was like neither team could get any pressure. The Falcons
Speaker 3: are just sending tons of blitzes and they're not getting
Speaker 3: near Baker Mayfield at all. And that's why it felt
Speaker 3: like it might have come down to who won that
Speaker 3: coin toss. I know they put the rule in that
Speaker 3: you got to score a touchdown, but I was like, man,
Speaker 3: I kind of like either of these teams to go
Speaker 3: score a touchdown right now. Falcons get the coin toss,
Speaker 3: they go to overtime, and then yeah, Kirk Kirk Cousins
Speaker 3: gets it done again. It was he ends up forty
Speaker 3: two fifty eight for five hundred and nine yards four
Speaker 3: touchdowns in that interception to David. The crazy thing Gerald is,
Speaker 3: I have some next gen stats here. He only threw
Speaker 3: four play action passes. He only threw one pass outside
Speaker 3: the pocket, so that's fifty seven passes. This guy is
Speaker 3: not moving, He's just sitting back there. That is surprising
Speaker 3: to me. I thought that was going to be a
Speaker 3: problem for this team, but he showed I guess you
Speaker 3: can you can make it work. Can can you make
Speaker 3: it work with a quarterback that a mobile You shouldn't.
Speaker 5: You shouldn't be able to.
Speaker 2: And it goes to this testament to what I said
Speaker 2: this past week on game day morning. The Bucks struggle
Speaker 2: to rush with four, you know, and if when you blitz,
Speaker 2: you take people out of coverage, and if you do
Speaker 2: that against the wrong person, this can happen. So when
Speaker 2: you take people out of coverage and you try and
Speaker 2: rush with four, but you're not playing great zone in
Speaker 2: the back end or great in the back end, you'll
Speaker 2: get picked apart. Shouldn't be able to throw that many
Speaker 2: times from the pocket it and be able to pick
Speaker 2: somebody apart. Sometimes you have to get out of the pocket.
Speaker 2: But they wasn't making Kurt move enough, and we just
Speaker 2: got to get more coordinated up front. Now, we did
Speaker 2: get to the quarterback more this week than we have
Speaker 2: in past weeks, well not last week, but weeks prior to,
Speaker 2: but just sitting.
Speaker 5: In the pocket like that.
Speaker 2: We got to get him off his spot, man, And
Speaker 2: that's why I said we had to get Kurt uncomfortable,
Speaker 2: and he wasn't uncomfortable back there.
Speaker 5: That's why he was just sitting back, just picking us apart.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he ends up you know, finding Cadero Hodge on
Speaker 3: that play there was a huge third down to Drake London.
Speaker 3: Drake London is an absolute boss. I think he's kind
Speaker 3: of having his moment. Tell me what you think about
Speaker 3: Drake London.
Speaker 2: He's really good man. You got some guys who just
Speaker 2: need the right person throwing them the ball. But somebody
Speaker 2: that's just truly skilled at what he does. Great hands,
Speaker 2: really good route runner. You know, he's just a baller
Speaker 2: and he's consistent. That's what you want. And when you
Speaker 2: want to looking for a guy, you need somebody who's
Speaker 2: consistent regardless of who's throwing them the ball.
Speaker 5: And that's what Drake London has been.
Speaker 2: That's why getting a Kirk Cousins drafting to Michael Pennock
Speaker 2: so early because you know you got pieces. You just
Speaker 2: got to get the right person to give them the ball.
Speaker 2: Great thing is Kirk Cousins has been playing very well,
Speaker 2: so you don't have to rush Michael Pennix into the lineup.
Speaker 2: He can sit back and he can learn. But as
Speaker 2: he's learning and getting better, you got Drake London who's
Speaker 2: improving and getting better. So when Michael Pennis do come
Speaker 2: into the lineup, now you got a dynamic duo that's
Speaker 2: going to be extremely scary. Add Bjon Robinson to it.
Speaker 2: And I hate that Atlanta figured out that throwing Michael
Speaker 2: Pitt's the ball actually works. I hate they figured it
Speaker 2: out tonight. I wish they had figured it out next week,
Speaker 2: not tonight.
Speaker 5: Geez man.
Speaker 4: That's the thing.
Speaker 3: Like Kirk has been getting a little better mostly each
Speaker 3: and every week, but this was different. Yeah, you mentioned
Speaker 3: Kyle Pitts gets a thirty two yard nice pass up
Speaker 3: to see it. I mean a lot of it was
Speaker 3: just nice throws.
Speaker 5: Kirk.
Speaker 3: He's always thrown a pretty football. Yeah, Taylor's en watching
Speaker 3: on YouTube, says kirktober is here. He has been an
Speaker 3: October monster. He gets Hodge involved Ray Ray McLeod, who's
Speaker 3: been in the league a minute, goes six for sixty six.
Speaker 3: I mean, my guy, I've always thought Darnel Mooney is
Speaker 3: a fantastic player. He knows how to get open. He
Speaker 3: just he's kind of like a very very very poor
Speaker 3: man's Antonio Brown in that, like the quarterback doesn't always
Speaker 3: know exactly where he's gonna be. He's just going to
Speaker 3: be open somewhere, and so that's been a problem for him.
Speaker 3: But he was great tonight. Other than that drop. We
Speaker 3: should give the Bucks some love though. So I was
Speaker 3: mentioned in the first half of that game when the
Speaker 3: Falcons are sending a ton of pressure, a ton of
Speaker 3: blitz is not getting any pressure on Baker, and Baker's
Speaker 3: back there cooking. I mean, Baker only wound up with
Speaker 3: twenty four passes in this game, but very efficient, one
Speaker 3: hundred and eighty yards, three touchdowns. They're moving the ball
Speaker 3: down the field. Your old teammate Mike Evans, he just
Speaker 3: he's getting it done, very physical, a couple of touchdowns.
Speaker 3: Nice routes by Liam Cohen. Like this offense I think
Speaker 3: has a lot to feel good about. Bucky Irving goes
Speaker 3: nine for forty four for Sheid White. Rashad White goes
Speaker 3: ten for seventy two. Godwins looked better this year, Like,
Speaker 3: this is a better Bucks offense than I expected this season.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And what it is is when everybody was saying
Speaker 2: Atlanta was the favorite to win this division, it was
Speaker 2: because of how it looked on paper. And I said,
Speaker 2: there's no substitution for chemistry. And that's what the Bucks
Speaker 2: have had with Baker Mayfield. See the time put in
Speaker 2: there was all the other rosters were new, you know,
Speaker 2: they were trying to develop timing and new guys in,
Speaker 2: new coordinators. This is and it's the Bucks have the
Speaker 2: same people, you know, and Baker the chemistry he was
Speaker 2: able to bald with Mike Evanson, Chris Godwin last year
Speaker 2: with Sean White. I knew it was gonna carry over
Speaker 2: because Baker there's nobody more dangerous than a person who
Speaker 2: has the belief of his organization or the players around him,
Speaker 2: and they believe in Baker Mayfield, and that's what he
Speaker 2: was looking for. He had a great season last year,
Speaker 2: almost one comeback Player of the Year, So I knew
Speaker 2: coming into this year the offense was gonna be even better.
Speaker 2: And you see in the chemistry has with Chris Godwin
Speaker 2: over the first five weeks.
Speaker 5: You see, Mike is just Mike. Mike has been Mike
Speaker 5: since he got in the league.
Speaker 2: But having a quarterback that you have chemistry with, that's
Speaker 2: why this offense is flowing away is flowing.
Speaker 5: We just couldn't get it done tonight.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was fantastic in the first half. They did
Speaker 3: have a three and out to start the second half,
Speaker 3: and then that three and out at the end in
Speaker 3: the fumble. There just was no margin for Era. You
Speaker 3: can't fault in offense when they have six scoring drives
Speaker 3: out of nine. I mean that the offense played well,
Speaker 3: but there was just no margin for Era. Really reminded
Speaker 3: me of that line Seahawks game. Suddenly offense is back
Speaker 3: in the NFL. The difference this time is Gino kept
Speaker 3: scoring and scoring and the Lions kept responding. There was
Speaker 3: a moment here where the Bucks offense stopped responding that
Speaker 3: the Falcons did a lot good they made They made
Speaker 3: the Falcons the Bucks defense struggle with tempo at time.
Speaker 3: That's something you can do with the veteran quarterback. But look,
Speaker 3: these two teams are three and two. Jared I believed
Speaker 3: in your bucks before the season. I picked them to
Speaker 3: win the division for many of the same reasons you said.
Speaker 3: And I just think if you just look at their
Speaker 3: top ten players, it's like they actually are a very
Speaker 3: talented team. You know, they have a lot of high
Speaker 3: quality players. And then I thought the continuity with Todd
Speaker 3: Bowles on defense and for the offensive players, I wanted
Speaker 3: to see what Liam Cohen looked like. But I think
Speaker 3: that's worked out well. This is a fun division, the
Speaker 3: NFC South. We're they're both three and two. The Saints
Speaker 3: are pretty frisky. They're going to be in Kansas City
Speaker 3: on Monday night. Like, Hey, I want to say a
Speaker 3: message to the schedule makers. I'm sure you agree with
Speaker 3: this best when you were a player. We don't need
Speaker 3: to just put the NFC South in primetime at the
Speaker 3: beginning of the season when we're opposite baseball. We should
Speaker 3: be putting NFC South in primetime all the time. It's
Speaker 3: a good time.
Speaker 4: There's no division quite like the NFC South.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And the crazy part is a lot of people
Speaker 2: thought the NFC South would be like one of the
Speaker 2: worst divisions going into the season. But Atlanta, they're fighters,
Speaker 2: New Orleans is better than we thought. Carolina is all
Speaker 2: over the place. But you know, you got the Buccaneers,
Speaker 2: who obviously have been playing great up to this point.
Speaker 2: Even tonight the game was not like neither team play bad.
Speaker 2: There was just no margin for air. Like you said
Speaker 2: and I said before the game, like we can't go
Speaker 2: kickfield goals. We gotta go get points versus Atlanta, especially
Speaker 2: on Thursday night. Man, I don't know what it is.
Speaker 2: There's a couple of things Atlanta on Thursday night and
Speaker 2: our creamsickle freaking jerseys. It's like it's something about those
Speaker 2: cream fickle jerseys Land on Thursday night with the Buccaneers.
Speaker 5: Man, it's just I don't know what it is.
Speaker 2: Man, I don't believe in curses anything like that, but
Speaker 2: it ain't. It ain't been great for us over the
Speaker 2: last ten ten or so years.
Speaker 3: Well, you get a chance to, yeah, maybe put the
Speaker 3: creamsicles on and beat Atlanta. Uh back in Tampa. I
Speaker 3: don't know later in the season that'll end up.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm not for him. We just we just we
Speaker 2: losing them, stop wearing them. And the funny thing is
Speaker 2: the Glazers are superstitious. So if we keep losing in
Speaker 2: the ease. Stop wearing them, please.
Speaker 4: I love it all right.
Speaker 3: So before before we let you go here, I do
Speaker 3: have a couple of little items. I did want to
Speaker 3: give some love again to your former teammate.
Speaker 4: Who.
Speaker 3: Man, he's building a Hall of Fame case like you
Speaker 3: did during your career.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: Let's listen to Mike Evans having a big time noteworthy
Speaker 3: touchdown earlier in this game.
Speaker 8: The Bucks line up and a shotgun set with two
Speaker 8: receivers lying to the left, one to the way Baker
Speaker 8: Mayfield both high snap loops, slip slips, throws up on
Speaker 8: toward the end zone. He's got average, he's got a
Speaker 8: touch stuffs, have about habits, has two Welcome to Atlanta,
Speaker 8: number thirteen doing his thing.
Speaker 3: That's a that's one hundred career touchdowns. Gerald one hundred man.
Speaker 3: That was a cold bloody route. And Mike, Mike is funny. Man,
Speaker 3: Mike do some stuff where you like Mike. That didn't
Speaker 3: mean nothing to you.
Speaker 2: He was like, man, whatever, you know, I just you know,
Speaker 2: he just Mike always shrug everything off. But he really
Speaker 2: loves what he does. He puts the working time in.
Speaker 2: He learned from a great mentor and Vincent Jackson rest
Speaker 2: the piece of Vincent Jackson. He taught him how to
Speaker 2: be what we used to call the ultimate pro, which
Speaker 2: is what Vincent Jackson was. You know, when Mike first
Speaker 2: came into the league, he was a chubby kid from Texas.
Speaker 2: Now a big body could play the game. He's he's
Speaker 2: a little chubby, fat face. Then he realized, Okay, let
Speaker 2: me get my body in shape. Let me take care
Speaker 2: of myself so I can play longer. I can I
Speaker 2: can sustain this level of play for a long period
Speaker 2: of time. And that's what Mike has done. He's a
Speaker 2: measure of consistency. If you need consistency, put Mike Evans
Speaker 2: bitcher right next to it. And he's just been incredible man.
Speaker 2: And he said that he wanted his hundredth catch the ball.
Speaker 2: He wanted his hundredth catch receiving touchdown. I mean that
Speaker 2: was his hundred touchdown. He wants this hundred time receiving touchdown.
Speaker 2: That's the ball he's gonna keep because he just keep
Speaker 2: giving the ball away.
Speaker 3: Okay, that's a that's a good point. There was I
Speaker 3: think a fumble recovery touchdown and here, Yeah, it's bad ass.
Speaker 3: It's one of the cool things about the Bucks that
Speaker 3: they has been there for a while.
Speaker 4: Godwin. You were with Godwin for a couple of years too.
Speaker 5: His rookie year. I was there. Yeah, m hm.
Speaker 3: And he's consistent and it's really been cool, actually because
Speaker 3: I really loved him in his first few years in
Speaker 3: the league, just what he could do after the catch,
Speaker 3: and you could you could tell the injuries for a
Speaker 3: couple of years affected him. But he looks like he's
Speaker 3: all the way back. He's a contract, he's gonna get
Speaker 3: paid again.
Speaker 4: Like that, They are a lot to deal with.
Speaker 3: They were missing actually their number three and number four
Speaker 3: receivers tonight, and then another receiver went down. So, like
Speaker 3: I said, I think both of these teams get out
Speaker 3: of the first five games of the season feeling pretty good.
Speaker 3: I mentioned my buddy Walker speaking of Mike Evans. My
Speaker 3: son Walker is a fan of yours, and so it's
Speaker 3: his bedtime.
Speaker 4: He's gone.
Speaker 3: We're not letting him stay up to watch the end
Speaker 3: of the game or watch this show. But he did
Speaker 3: want to send a little message to you, So we're
Speaker 3: going to listen to that now.
Speaker 5: Jerald.
Speaker 10: Hi, mister McCourt, I like your show on Sunday mornings,
Speaker 10: and I have a question for you. Is Mike Evans
Speaker 10: going to be in the Hall of Fame? Prom Walker?
Speaker 2: I love it, man, I love it. I'm a dad's dad,
Speaker 2: I'm a family man to my core. I got five kids, man,
Speaker 2: and I was just in a car and over earlier
Speaker 2: with my ten year old to my five year old.
Speaker 2: So h man, hearing that little voice, I'm so used
Speaker 2: to hearing it. It's incredible to hear from Walker and
Speaker 2: uh Walker to answer your question. Yes, I think we
Speaker 2: questioned whether Mike Evans should be in the Hall of
Speaker 2: Fame or not, and the question should be be a
Speaker 2: first ballot or not. But Mike Evans for sure like that.
Speaker 2: Mike Evans for sure is a Hall of Famer. Walker,
Speaker 2: you are hall of Famer. From Gerald and his family
Speaker 2: to you, guys, we love you so much. Walker, and
Speaker 2: I definitely appreciate your question and all your love and
Speaker 2: your support.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's a big fan and he's going to have
Speaker 3: a smile ear to ear when I when we wake
Speaker 3: up tomorrow and I'll play him that. That is awesome.
Speaker 3: Tough night for your box. Appreciate the professionalism. The very
Speaker 3: last thing we're gonna do here Cherld. We actually are
Speaker 3: going to give a little bit of love to someone
Speaker 3: you went against.
Speaker 4: It on the night where they they honored Matt Ryan.
Speaker 3: We are just gonna listen to just one little clip
Speaker 3: from from a guy that you've faced off against.
Speaker 11: To the Falcons fans, Atlanta has become my home.
Speaker 12: You have become my extended family. I want you to
Speaker 12: know it was the thrill of a lifetime to be
Speaker 12: your quarterback. Every day I was trying to be the
Speaker 12: best I could for this organization and for you. I
Speaker 12: will never have another job that I loved as much
Speaker 12: as the one I had here.
Speaker 3: So that's That's a guy, Matt Ryan, that you went against.
Speaker 3: It's making me feel old a little bit that Matt
Speaker 3: Ryan's going to the Ring of Honor and Roddy White's
Speaker 3: up there, And do you have any any Matt Ryan
Speaker 3: you know, facing off against Matt Ryan, what that was like?
Speaker 4: Story?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I love Mattie ice Man and calling him Matty
Speaker 2: Ice is like a cardinal seeing for a rival, you know,
Speaker 2: and for an opponent. But I love him to death.
Speaker 2: Matt Ryan is one of the best competitors I've ever faced.
Speaker 2: And Matt Ryan is actually where I learned the term flammable.
Speaker 2: I used to use He's flammable man, And he was
Speaker 2: one of those people when he gets started, if you
Speaker 2: don't if you don't stop him early, he's flammable, especially
Speaker 2: in that building. And that's why I knew that building
Speaker 2: is so electric. Who's ever a quarterback? And I faced
Speaker 2: off against two guys that were there at the same time.
Speaker 2: I faced off against him and Roddy White, but also
Speaker 2: freaking Julio Jones. So I had to deal with all
Speaker 2: that over my time in Tampa.
Speaker 1: Man.
Speaker 2: But Matty Ice, everything he's getting he deserves. He for
Speaker 2: sure should put on that gold jacket with Mike Evans,
Speaker 2: along with Julio Jones and my buddy Lavonte David, And
Speaker 2: you know, it's just a It was a great run
Speaker 2: playing against Matty Ice.
Speaker 5: Actually, when.
Speaker 2: My last game as a Buccaneer was versus the Falcons,
Speaker 2: and I had a feeling, wasn't too sure if I
Speaker 2: was coming back and that, but I had like a
Speaker 2: little inkling. So I told Maddy Ice, I said, hey, listen,
Speaker 2: this may be my last time in the NFC South.
Speaker 2: Can I have your jersey? And he signed it for me.
Speaker 2: I got Matt Ryan's jersey man and a freaking incredible
Speaker 2: career as an Atlanta Falcon.
Speaker 5: Love competing against Matty Ice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I just think of how he came
Speaker 3: into the league. I remember his very first game, him
Speaker 3: having this crazy drive at the end to get it done,
Speaker 3: and that was his career. Although I got to say
Speaker 3: not to annoy both fan bases here. When the Bucks
Speaker 3: backed up out of field goal range in that spot,
Speaker 3: it reminded me so much of the Falcon Super Bowl
Speaker 3: after Julio made that catch that you go in history
Speaker 3: as one of the greatest catches of all time, and
Speaker 3: that one of the greatest throws of all time in
Speaker 3: the Super Bowl and they're in field goal range and
Speaker 3: they're probably gonna win it, and then they get a
Speaker 3: holding penalty to back them up and they give the
Speaker 3: Patriots another chance, and that kind of happened to your
Speaker 3: Bucks tonight. They give the Falcons the other chance, and Hey,
Speaker 3: the new the new Mattie Ice, kirk o chains, he's
Speaker 3: swagsurfing out there, he's clutched, and it's gonna be a
Speaker 3: fun year in the NFC South.
Speaker 4: We'll be watching you Gerald.
Speaker 3: Listen to your podcast with with Kyle voyant van Ney
Speaker 3: at Yahoo. Check him out Game Day Morning.
Speaker 2: Now, Who's Sports check us out every Tuesday, NFL Game
Speaker 2: Day Morning, every Sunday morning.
Speaker 5: Best show on TV. I appreciate it. Yeah, thank you
Speaker 5: so much, no problem.
Speaker 3: Walker's favorite Gerald McCoy. All right, I am flying after that,
Speaker 3: and yet this show's not even over. After the break,
Speaker 3: I want to throw to a conversation Jordan Rodriege and
Speaker 3: I had with Ron Rivera, who's yeah now working at
Speaker 3: NFL Network. We picked his brain about some of the
Speaker 3: most fascinating defenses of the season. Was a really fun
Speaker 3: conversation that'll be after the break back on NFL Daily
Speaker 3: and back in the Chris Westling podcast studio.
Speaker 6: Here.
Speaker 3: Really excited to be joined by my friend Jordan rod
Speaker 3: Rieg of the Athletic and my new friend. I don't
Speaker 3: know if I can call him a friend, but we've
Speaker 3: met a few times now. Ron Rivera maybe a friend
Speaker 3: of Jordan's here, former coach of the Washington Commanders and
Speaker 3: the Carolina Panthers, and he's just chilling here at NFL Media.
Speaker 3: Before we turned on the camera, he was so comfortable.
Speaker 3: He had his famous amous cookies out and his bag
Speaker 3: on the table. And we're like, we're recording this, Ron,
Speaker 3: We're gonna take it away. But I love the I
Speaker 3: love the shirt for our YouTube audience too.
Speaker 7: Thank you.
Speaker 6: Well, something very important is happening exactly one month from now. Yeah,
Speaker 6: we got to make vote yes. Yes, But thank you Greg,
Speaker 6: Thank you very much. Jordan's always great to be with you.
Speaker 13: I'm so happy.
Speaker 9: This is very surreal for me to be sitting first
Speaker 9: of all, on the same side of like a lectern
Speaker 9: or a desk or something with you, Ron, after covering
Speaker 9: you for so many years. But then also I'm really
Speaker 9: happy because we're going to talk about defense today, among
Speaker 9: other things, and Ron just has such great perspective to
Speaker 9: lend for.
Speaker 13: Us on that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we thought it'd be fun to talk with Ron
Speaker 3: about the defenses that we find the most fascinating so far.
Speaker 3: And so we're not we're not ranking them, we're not
Speaker 3: seeing these are the best, but just ones that would
Speaker 3: be interesting to talk about, Ron, because it's it's a
Speaker 3: year for defense, yes, right now, like it's happening. It's
Speaker 3: it's the run game, it's defense. We've been waiting sort
Speaker 3: of for this push and pull. It started a little
Speaker 3: bit last year and it's definitely happening more aggressively right now.
Speaker 7: It is because I think the game is changing again.
Speaker 6: You know, every so many years you see this kind
Speaker 6: of trend going one direction to the other, you know,
Speaker 6: and I think the trend now is heading towards running again.
Speaker 6: And part of the reason because I think the defensive
Speaker 6: players have gotten smaller. Because the defensive players have gotten smaller,
Speaker 6: you see offenses being more physical, more aggressive upfront. People
Speaker 6: are running the ball more. We talked about this earlier.
Speaker 6: Rushing yards are up compared to the passing yards which
Speaker 6: are down. So that's something that I think is due
Speaker 6: to the fact that defensive players are getting smaller, quicker,
Speaker 6: but the offensive linemen are getting bigger, more physical, and
Speaker 6: they're athletic.
Speaker 13: Yeah, in part, that's the domination of the spread.
Speaker 9: Obviously, that's forcing defenders to be more hybrid, smaller, framed,
Speaker 9: more multiple, play them in the box, plan back deep
Speaker 9: if you have to, keeping a shell over the back
Speaker 9: of things like we have heard some people yelling about
Speaker 9: on TV. Not you, Ron, never you, but other people
Speaker 9: yelling about on TV. But you know, it is interesting
Speaker 9: because we are in sort of a sea change and
Speaker 9: one of those things and some of the defense we're
Speaker 9: going to talk about today are built for it and
Speaker 9: some are interestingly built for the past, but still doing
Speaker 9: some cool stuff.
Speaker 13: Yes, for the present.
Speaker 4: Yeah, let's talk about him.
Speaker 3: So I guess I want to start with the Vikings
Speaker 3: because they are They are the team that is the
Speaker 3: most gonzo. They are the team that you watch and
Speaker 3: you think, like, what exactly are they doing?
Speaker 4: Now?
Speaker 3: They've been blitzing for a minute now with Brian Flores,
Speaker 3: and their blitz rates still very high, second in the league.
Speaker 3: But to your point, they are going very light like
Speaker 3: they play with their dime defense I think thirty one
Speaker 3: percent of the time, which is the most in the league.
Speaker 3: And so they have three safeties on the field quite
Speaker 3: a bit. They use them in all these creative ways
Speaker 3: Harrison Smith, Josh Mantelis Cam Binden. But they also have
Speaker 3: three cornerbacks on the field quite a bit, so they
Speaker 3: essentially have six starters. Like, how do you see this
Speaker 3: Vikings team? Like how are they doing it?
Speaker 7: Well? The biggest thing is, too, is upfront, they're very stout.
Speaker 6: They still play very physical, whether it's four down linemen
Speaker 6: and a linebacker, n four down a lineman and two linebackers.
Speaker 6: One of the things that coach Flores does very well
Speaker 6: is they're very simplistic in terms of some of the
Speaker 6: things that they do, and they're very good at being
Speaker 6: very basic. But then the complexity gets you because of
Speaker 6: the pressures. The way he uses the pressure is the
Speaker 6: way he he mixes up his coverages. He's not always
Speaker 6: sitting in the same thing, and because of the different
Speaker 6: personnel groupings that he's willing to match up with, sometimes
Speaker 6: you get mismatches in the defensive favor as opposed to
Speaker 6: offenses always getting the positive mismatches.
Speaker 9: Yeah, ron, I wanted to ask you this from your
Speaker 9: perspective as someone who has called defensive signals and plays
Speaker 9: and had had to counter offenses and communicate with the
Speaker 9: with the mic and really make sure that those counters
Speaker 9: are implemented with your defense. You hear some of the
Speaker 9: former players in that system talk about how late the
Speaker 9: call is getting into the green dot and how late
Speaker 9: it's getting communicated, not in a bad way, in a
Speaker 9: way that he's almost giving them a third counter, especially
Speaker 9: with all this pre snap motion that offenses are using
Speaker 9: to try to take the teeth out of some of
Speaker 9: the pressure.
Speaker 13: He does run or some of the formation changes they use.
Speaker 9: So from your perspective, like, if you're going to do
Speaker 9: it that late, you kind of see it the way
Speaker 9: they built their defensive roster with those veterans, what are
Speaker 9: key elements of that communication to add that that late counter,
Speaker 9: that third counter right up until the snap.
Speaker 6: Well, first of all, the biggest thing you just said
Speaker 6: was about having veterans, having the right kind of guys
Speaker 6: back there that are you what I call air traffic controllers.
Speaker 6: They're the guys that are making those decisions, making those
Speaker 6: late checks all of a sudden, And so what you
Speaker 6: have to do is you do have to have very bright,
Speaker 6: intelligent guys that can help make those calls and checks
Speaker 6: and get them across to everybody. But also you also
Speaker 6: got to have guys that are committed to the work
Speaker 6: ethic of what it's going to take. And with Coach Flores,
Speaker 6: I promise you they're walkthroughs, their meetings, those things are
Speaker 6: very very good. I mean they're constantly probably talking about
Speaker 6: what ifs, how can we handle these things, and what
Speaker 6: are our adjustments. You know, back in the day they're
Speaker 6: called AFC's automatic fronts and coverages based on what you
Speaker 6: get from them from the from the offense, you check
Speaker 6: on defense. I learned that from Buddy Ryan, Rex Ryan
Speaker 6: and Rob Brian use some of that when they were
Speaker 6: coaching in the league as full time coordinators and head coaches.
Speaker 6: Those guys were always thinking that, again, we want to
Speaker 6: put our defense in the best defense to match with
Speaker 6: the offense potentially does these formations.
Speaker 9: It's interesting though, because now offenses are giving more questions
Speaker 9: to the defense. They're asking they're asking him to declare
Speaker 9: what they're going to do, essentially earlier in the snap,
Speaker 9: earlier before the snap than ever. So the fact that
Speaker 9: he can make a second check and safety's joke about this,
Speaker 9: Oh maybe one day we'll finally win because we'll get
Speaker 9: a third check. Well, Brian Flores is able to give
Speaker 9: that third check because he can lean on the communication element.
Speaker 9: Let's talk about that too, because they are they're on
Speaker 9: a you know, the cliche is they're on a line together.
Speaker 13: But a phone line too.
Speaker 9: I mean, they're not able to talk to each other
Speaker 9: like directly in the helmets, but the fact that they
Speaker 9: can communicate in this way, they're kind of gaming the
Speaker 9: system a little bit with what offenses are trying to
Speaker 9: get them to tell them. First of all, they're not
Speaker 9: showing what they're actually going to do because they're they're
Speaker 9: countering it with that check or that rotation so late
Speaker 9: in the down or in the snap.
Speaker 7: And that's so important.
Speaker 6: Again, you know, it's not just about being able to
Speaker 6: disguise what you want to do and give the presentation
Speaker 6: to Hey, we're going to play this type of cover
Speaker 6: because we got a safety tilting that direction. Okay, that
Speaker 6: could be a false key. You know again, just because
Speaker 6: I'm tilted doesn't mean necessarily I'm gonna stay down, or
Speaker 6: I'm a lined up over the top of the number
Speaker 6: two receiver and the nickels cheating in like he's gonna
Speaker 6: go ahead and run a pressure, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: So again, disguise is just as important and being in
Speaker 6: tune with one another so that if I see he's
Speaker 6: stepping down, okay for this specific call, that doesn't necessarily
Speaker 6: mean on the quarterback sides, oh they're rotating that direction. No,
Speaker 6: we could be doing something different because I know he's
Speaker 6: moving this. He's telling me something else.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: The quarterbacks just seem like they're confused. They're holding the
Speaker 3: ball longer we were talking at our desks Jordan about that.
Speaker 3: It might take a quarterback, you know, really being confident
Speaker 3: to spot throw because there are gonna be holes here.
Speaker 3: If if you're blitzing a lot and they blitz about
Speaker 3: forty percent time, it's actually less than last year, and
Speaker 3: you're dropping a up safeties back, it's a that's a
Speaker 3: strange way to do it, but that's that's kind of.
Speaker 4: What they're doing.
Speaker 3: They're trying to, in theory, have an umbrella over everything.
Speaker 3: There should be some spots to hit on the field.
Speaker 3: Are they kind of willing to give up some big
Speaker 3: plays in order to make some big plays? If you're
Speaker 3: Brian Flores, you need maybe a quarterback like a Gino
Speaker 3: or an Aaron Rodgers or some sort of veteran that's
Speaker 3: a little stafford, a little more confident throwing into those
Speaker 3: areas when you're playing a defense like that, and you
Speaker 3: don't find many quarters backs like that in a league anymore.
Speaker 7: No, because again, what.
Speaker 6: They're trying to do more for anything else is if
Speaker 6: they're going to give anything up, they're going to give
Speaker 6: things underneath yep up. And again a lot of things
Speaker 6: they're going to do, we're gonna also be based on
Speaker 6: down and distance. You know, understanding that Hey, second and long, Hey,
Speaker 6: it's okay, Yeah, they complete something quick underneath, we'll drive down,
Speaker 6: we'll make the tackle, we'll be in third down, or
Speaker 6: if it's third and long, hey, we're willing to give
Speaker 6: this up because again it's about making the tackle, getting
Speaker 6: them down, getting out of the situation, forcing the punt.
Speaker 7: So again, a lot of the things that they do
Speaker 7: are all calculated.
Speaker 6: I promise you Coach Flores is really looked at these things,
Speaker 6: thought about these opportunities, put them in the game plan.
Speaker 6: He's got guys that are understanding that can communicate that
Speaker 6: to the guys that are lining up out there on
Speaker 6: the defensive side.
Speaker 9: It's an interesting way to ask, like to dare a quarterback.
Speaker 9: We think about daring the quarterback with the pressure, right,
Speaker 9: but you're daring a quarterback essentially. If you want to
Speaker 9: beat us, if I'm Brian Flores and the Vikings event,
Speaker 9: if you want to beat us, you have to play
Speaker 9: truly blind football in a way, because when you talk
Speaker 9: about spot throw, is what Greg's saying is throwing to
Speaker 9: a landmark on the field without maybe even seeing where
Speaker 9: that is. Because there's so much pressure coming into your face,
Speaker 9: and it's going to be underneath. It's not going to
Speaker 9: be the explosive pass play. So you have to play
Speaker 9: this like ego list blind football, and quarterbacks don't want
Speaker 9: to do that.
Speaker 4: No, they don't. There a second right now.
Speaker 3: In EPA, per play fifth in success rate, So their
Speaker 3: top team in terms of total efficiency in DVOA. If
Speaker 3: you want to get into the numbers, and I just
Speaker 3: you gotta be appreciate coaching because what I just from
Speaker 3: a more of a layman can understand is when a
Speaker 3: new coach comes in and the players that were there
Speaker 3: before are performing better in certain aspects. Harrison Smith, we
Speaker 3: thought was maybe getting towards the end of his career.
Speaker 3: I swear he's playing as good as he's ever played.
Speaker 3: Josh Mattelis no one's ever heard of Josh Mittelis before.
Speaker 3: They got him play in six different positions. He's paying
Speaker 3: down lineman and he's like a safety. They got him
Speaker 3: playing linebacker, they got him playing safety, they got him
Speaker 3: playing cornerback. He's a really key part Cam bind him.
Speaker 3: You have guys at cornerback that are like journeyman Gilmore
Speaker 3: and Byron Murphy.
Speaker 4: Is a nice signing.
Speaker 3: But with Shaq Griffin and they're all playing I think
Speaker 3: better and they understand what the coach is asking him
Speaker 3: to do exactly.
Speaker 6: And I think one of the things too, is when
Speaker 6: you've got guys with the same skill set, okay, and
Speaker 6: now all of a sudden, you can sit there and say, well,
Speaker 6: they can't create the mismatch that they want. We can
Speaker 6: create the mismatch. Why because we have three guys out
Speaker 6: of the same skill set, whether they be three dbs
Speaker 6: or corners, or they'd be three line safeties. Now, all
Speaker 6: of a sudden, you have one guy that come down
Speaker 6: and play like a linebacker, and you say, well, the
Speaker 6: other two can't. Well, all of a sudden, you start motion,
Speaker 6: and all of a sudden, instead of these guys chasing him,
Speaker 6: they rotate the other direction. You can go, okay, so
Speaker 6: now we know they're in the zone. But guess what
Speaker 6: they're playing, man?
Speaker 7: Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Usually when a guy
Speaker 7: runs across what he got what you usually got, man.
Speaker 13: And I love that.
Speaker 9: I love that they're countering motion this way because motion,
Speaker 9: like I mentioned before, it exists in part. There's a
Speaker 9: lot of other things now that coach smart coaches are
Speaker 9: doing with it. It exists in part to get the
Speaker 9: defense to tell you what coverages they're playing. It's an
Speaker 9: information seeking tool. Now, of course there's formation changes things
Speaker 9: like that, but they're not giving any information and in fact,
Speaker 9: they're getting more from you when you go.
Speaker 13: In motion, because then they are going to give another check.
Speaker 6: And a great example team that uses motion to id
Speaker 6: or to undress the defense is Miami with the way
Speaker 6: they take their receivers and they move them over here,
Speaker 6: and they put somebody over there, and they put them
Speaker 6: in stacks, and what they're looking for is to see
Speaker 6: how you align against them. If you align over the top,
Speaker 6: they're thinking, okay, we've got man coverag you align shading
Speaker 6: on the inside two three yards off on the inside,
Speaker 6: they know they got zoned. So again, if you can disguise,
Speaker 6: if you can move yourself properly and put yourself in position,
Speaker 6: that's one thing. Then if you put yourself in the
Speaker 6: right position, can you react and get to where you
Speaker 6: need to be? Right examples if if you get motion
Speaker 6: outside and you get a linebacker goes that lines up
Speaker 6: over the top, and all of a sudden you sit
Speaker 6: there and go, wow, we've got man coverage. Well, you've
Speaker 6: got a mismatch. You've got Christian McCaffrey against a linebacker. Now,
Speaker 6: all of a sudden, where's the safety favor? Now, if
Speaker 6: the safety's favor over there helping against Christian McCaffrey, Now
Speaker 6: who's that open? Well over here, you know we've got
Speaker 6: Debo open or he's one on one because they're showing
Speaker 6: single high. That's what the defense, the offenses are looking for.
Speaker 6: How does the defense counter that? Well, I can favor
Speaker 6: over here, but I can play middle of the formation.
Speaker 7: So there's things that you can.
Speaker 6: Counter to help, uh, support what you want to do
Speaker 6: on defense by again proper disguise and understanding where that
Speaker 6: help's going to be.
Speaker 3: It's the defense dictating. I know Ron Rivera loves that.
Speaker 3: It's like it's like when he was on the field
Speaker 3: for the eighty six Bears. We're gonna dictate, not let
Speaker 3: the offense dictate. And Flores has been so fantastic this year.
Speaker 3: I think he will will see how the rest of
Speaker 3: the year goes, but I think he's worthy of getting
Speaker 3: some head coaching interviews. I think that's gonna be an
Speaker 3: interesting moment for the league, considering the litigation that he
Speaker 3: had had with the league, and I really hope that
Speaker 3: it is in a situation where he doesn't get coaching
Speaker 3: interviews because that would be a bad look for the league.
Speaker 3: He didn't he didn't last year, which definitely caught my eye,
Speaker 3: and we will see. Well, hold on to that for
Speaker 3: a second. Let's go to Let's go to some other
Speaker 3: defenses that we find fascint you throw out a favorite.
Speaker 3: We could go Broncos, we could go Bears. I mean
Speaker 3: the Broncos. I'll throw out the Broncos.
Speaker 13: I want to talk about the Bronx.
Speaker 3: The Broncos are surprising to me. They are the team
Speaker 3: that's leading the league in blitzes right now.
Speaker 4: It's just crazy.
Speaker 3: Almost half the time they're blitzing and they're just testing
Speaker 3: your protection. And I was surprised that they seem to
Speaker 3: outsmart Aaron Rodgers, who you would think is among the
Speaker 3: best play callers in the league, even though he's a
Speaker 3: quarterback and he gets help obviously from his coaching staff
Speaker 3: and everything. And their offensive line was a little scrambled
Speaker 3: where that pressure was coming back.
Speaker 4: You know, they made him hold the ball.
Speaker 3: They hit him fourteen times, they sacked them five times,
Speaker 3: and they've been really effective. I think Vance Joseph maybe
Speaker 3: made the decision maybe we're not the most talented group
Speaker 3: up front. Totally, they're not bad, but like we're gonna
Speaker 3: need to scheme our way into being great.
Speaker 6: Well, I think one of the things again, if you
Speaker 6: go back and think about what happened last year, people
Speaker 6: wanted to see Vance Joseph fired from Denver and again
Speaker 6: now all of a sudden he you know, Sean, sticks
Speaker 6: with him, gives him the next year coming into it.
Speaker 6: And what does that mean, Well, it means that these
Speaker 6: guys on defense are now in the same system. They
Speaker 6: have a little bit of experience of what you expect
Speaker 6: from what coach Joseph wants. And now all of a sudden,
Speaker 6: there's this communication aspect, because when you watch these games
Speaker 6: and you see these guys, you know, giving the handsignal,
Speaker 6: do you see the looks, you see the points, you
Speaker 6: see the movement. Now all of a sudden it starts
Speaker 6: being put into place. Everything he wants to do is
Speaker 6: all based off of these guys communicating. And that's probably
Speaker 6: the biggest word that we can use in terms of
Speaker 6: why are there are successes. You've got smart players who
Speaker 6: can communicate. You've got a defensive coordinators trying to put
Speaker 6: these guys in proper position to make place. But they're
Speaker 6: also being given tools to Like we talked about earlier,
Speaker 6: is we can check, we can go from one coverage
Speaker 6: to another. We can show zone and play man. We
Speaker 6: can play man and show zone. We can split the
Speaker 6: defense and play a quarters on one side, half on
Speaker 6: the other, so we can roll up and take away
Speaker 6: a specific side of the of the offense. So there's
Speaker 6: a lot of tools that these coaches, especially these veteran
Speaker 6: guys that you're seeing. You know, these guys are you know,
Speaker 6: guys that have the experience that have been have done
Speaker 6: it before, and now they've got the players that can
Speaker 6: match what they want done.
Speaker 13: This is their moment, okay, and I love though.
Speaker 9: You know, when we talk about blitzes and extra pressure
Speaker 9: and those types of things, it can sound maybe like
Speaker 9: it's complicating things, But in the case of the Broncos,
Speaker 9: they've actually made things less complicated in the sense that
Speaker 9: they're playing with this ethos that is very trademark, that
Speaker 9: is rare that people don't actually get a lot of
Speaker 9: these days because they have a shut down elite corner,
Speaker 9: and so you can flex a lot of different coverages.
Speaker 9: Like you said, you can be very malleable and like
Speaker 9: play very free and mathematical on the back end. If
Speaker 9: you have Pat certain who, by the way, has only
Speaker 9: allowed eight catches for eighty five yards through the four
Speaker 9: games when targeted, and that's against receivers that he's shadowed
Speaker 9: of over sixty percent of routes, DK Metcalf, George Pickens,
Speaker 9: Mike Evans, and Garrett Wilson. When you are simplifying things
Speaker 9: in the sense where you're like, all right, I've got
Speaker 9: that guy. Now everything is going to revolve around that
Speaker 9: guy taking away at least three pieces of math for
Speaker 9: the offense because those receivers, those caliber receivers are plus
Speaker 9: three players. So that revolves around taking away that of
Speaker 9: math essentially and then flipping the leverage. Okay, yeah, you
Speaker 9: can send extra secondary players and linebackers to blitz because
Speaker 9: you don't even have to worry about the plus three.
Speaker 9: You can send plus one plus two on your side
Speaker 9: because you've already taken care of plus three. And it's
Speaker 9: it's interesting because they've simplified it in that sense where
Speaker 9: it's like we got a dude so yeah, we're going
Speaker 9: to revolve things around the dude.
Speaker 3: How do you ever have a cornerback like that that
Speaker 3: changes the way you coach the rest of your defense?
Speaker 6: You you, you do do that when you have that
Speaker 6: gutten most certainly, and you have guys that are similar
Speaker 6: to that, you can do it as well, whether it's
Speaker 6: at the corner position, the.
Speaker 9: Linebacker position exactly when you had two of them, yes.
Speaker 6: You did, But we have guys like that now, you
Speaker 6: coach everybody else differently because you know that, hey, they're
Speaker 6: not going to need the help inside and coverage. So
Speaker 6: we can take those those those those those safeties and
Speaker 6: play them a little wider. We can play a little
Speaker 6: bit more middle open defense, which you're starting to see
Speaker 6: a lot more right now, is to try and stop
Speaker 6: these passing games. And that's also part of the reason
Speaker 6: why I think there's a little bit more running going on,
Speaker 6: is because teams are playing a little bit more cover
Speaker 6: two shelves, okay, And because of that, you're getting less
Speaker 6: guys in the run box and more guys are running
Speaker 6: the ball. So again, it's about whether you have a
Speaker 6: player or a positional players that you can say, hey,
Speaker 6: you know what we can add one or two and
Speaker 6: take away one or two from them as well. So
Speaker 6: again having guys that are pretty special, you know, Luke Keekley,
Speaker 6: Thomas Davis, those guys, those guys. When you have those
Speaker 6: types of players, that's a special situation. And now, as
Speaker 6: she talked about certain with Denver, now you can roll
Speaker 6: your coverage opposite, okay, and you're gonna say, we're not
Speaker 6: gonna let this particular guy beat us. We're gonna put
Speaker 6: our best guy on him. He's going to know he's
Speaker 6: going to have help to his inside or help over
Speaker 6: the top every now and then. He's not going to
Speaker 6: get a lot of help. And we're going to try
Speaker 6: and eliminate this over here with the other ten.
Speaker 3: We're going to try to help Riley moss Out, who's
Speaker 3: fighting for his life. On the other side of year,
Speaker 3: player was hurt last year and teams are going after
Speaker 3: him and he's holding up. Okay, some penalties, some bad plays,
Speaker 3: but they they've been very consistent. They're tenth against the past,
Speaker 3: fifth against the run, fifth overall in terms of DVO
Speaker 3: way and they're they're making it work and it's made
Speaker 3: them watchable because these bow Knicks games.
Speaker 4: This is this is where I feel.
Speaker 3: I feel a little sick because I'm just like I
Speaker 3: kind of missed just I like different flavors. I love
Speaker 3: me a Gino golf shootout on a Monday night, but
Speaker 3: I kind of like a ten to nine just like,
Speaker 3: oh man, are either of these teams going to score?
Speaker 4: Slopfest?
Speaker 3: Broncos jet So I like having different flavors in the NFL.
Speaker 3: Broncos giving us that. Let's talk about your Bears.
Speaker 4: You you can, they'll consider them your Bears. I guess
Speaker 4: you've been going up against them.
Speaker 7: For like the ya but you know what, when you've
Speaker 7: played the Bears, you'll.
Speaker 4: Always okay, okay.
Speaker 13: So you've just in Chicago was great.
Speaker 3: So you've coached against Matt eberflus a couple of times.
Speaker 4: Went and looked. I found a twelve seven Washington victory.
Speaker 3: So their defense was already playing well back then against
Speaker 3: you guys. My question for them, and you can tell
Speaker 3: me what you just think how they structure things. I've
Speaker 3: had questions of some teams are they built for this
Speaker 3: twenty twenty four football? Because to me, they're built very
Speaker 3: much on both sides of the ball of like we're
Speaker 3: going to stop the pass, and the numbers would say
Speaker 3: they're one of the very best stopping the pass at
Speaker 3: getting after the quarterback, and maybe we're not as focused
Speaker 3: on stopping the run offensively. I think they're also kind
Speaker 3: of built to throw the ball and not as much
Speaker 3: to run the ball. And I'm wondering if those teams
Speaker 3: could be in a little bit of trouble this year.
Speaker 3: They haven't really stopped the run that well. But we
Speaker 3: think of them as like an elite defense. I don't
Speaker 3: know if they're quite there. They're very good in past situations,
Speaker 3: not so much against the run. Is that kind of
Speaker 3: the Eberflus defense or what is it?
Speaker 7: To me?
Speaker 6: What I've always kind of thought Matt is almost a
Speaker 6: a ben don't break type of defense. Keep the game
Speaker 6: close that way during crunch time, something big can happen
Speaker 6: on the defensive side.
Speaker 13: We're special teams.
Speaker 4: I was about Sage.
Speaker 6: That's the one one thing that don't forget about what
Speaker 6: they've done on special teams in terms of they've blocked
Speaker 6: a punt return it for a touchdown. I believe that
Speaker 6: was the Tennessee game.
Speaker 9: Yeah, the punter also against the Rams completely iced that
Speaker 9: game out.
Speaker 4: Dorry Taylor.
Speaker 3: I mean, people were getting on him for a fourth
Speaker 3: round pick that's way more.
Speaker 4: Valuable than the majority of one round games. Come on,
Speaker 4: I mean he really did.
Speaker 6: If you think about where they kept pinning, yeah, I
Speaker 6: mean that, you know you statistically it is it is
Speaker 6: very hard to go eighty yards and score touchdowns. It's
Speaker 6: even harder to go ninety yards and score touchdowns, let
Speaker 6: alone ninety eight yards ago and score touchdowns. So having
Speaker 6: that weapon has really helped their defense again as well,
Speaker 6: because if we can keep them pinned on their side
Speaker 6: of the ball, I mean, ascuse me of the fifty,
Speaker 6: you're going to give your defense opportunities to be successful
Speaker 6: a lot more. Plus what it's going to do is
Speaker 6: create better field position for your offense.
Speaker 9: Yeah, they're one of the few teams that I think
Speaker 9: you can genuinely consider that special teams unit as an
Speaker 9: extension of specifically the defense, and especially with you see
Speaker 9: actually that that's part of the plan with the way
Speaker 9: that the Bears are pressuring more in the second half
Speaker 9: versus the first half, and they really dialed things up.
Speaker 9: I saw it in person this this past weekend. You know,
Speaker 9: it's interesting that actually shows you that even though they're
Speaker 9: not usually playing with a lead that they're still going
Speaker 9: to rush the passer or try to dial pressure as
Speaker 9: much as they can on opportunities that other teams are
Speaker 9: throwing the ball and they have to throw the ball.
Speaker 13: Because they're backed up.
Speaker 9: And so that's even if you don't you know, even
Speaker 9: if you're the Bears and you're in a deficit, if
Speaker 9: you can back the other team up, they're going to
Speaker 9: feel like they have to throw the ball against you.
Speaker 6: Teams that have had success against the Bears are always
Speaker 6: in front of the chains. They're not chasing it. And
Speaker 6: if you can get them as the Bears get them
Speaker 6: to chase it, they're going to be very successful in
Speaker 6: a terrific pass rush. You know, Sweat, I think is
Speaker 6: really one of the really really good outside edge rushers
Speaker 6: in this league.
Speaker 7: And he'll continue to do those things for your guy.
Speaker 6: Yes, he is a good, good football player, and he
Speaker 6: has really helped that resurgeon since he got there last season.
Speaker 6: So a lot of big pluses for them as far
Speaker 6: as that's concerned. And again, a lot of things that
Speaker 6: Matt does on defense, for the most part, is very
Speaker 6: solid sound football. They're not doing anything overly extraordinary. What
Speaker 6: they're doing is they're doing the basic things very very well,
Speaker 6: and all the little wrinkles they put in there are
Speaker 6: very good.
Speaker 3: And they've drafted and developed to that strength. They've taken
Speaker 3: a lot of players in the defensive backfield. Some hit quick,
Speaker 3: some took a little longer, but overall now it's one
Speaker 3: of the best young groups in the entire NFL. They
Speaker 3: got to try to win that way. But yeah, the
Speaker 3: Bears special teams excelling. We're a long way from Cody
Speaker 3: Parky and the double doink way back in the day
Speaker 3: for the Bears. All right, let's before we let you go,
Speaker 3: let's sort of I don't know, do we have a
Speaker 3: favorite coach? Actually, you're you know, you're with the Commander
Speaker 3: last year before we talked like maybe our favorite coaches
Speaker 3: the year so far? You know, you're are you still
Speaker 3: in touch with what's going on in Washington.
Speaker 6: Well, I pay attention to what's going on throughout the league,
Speaker 6: and and you know, and I know coach Quinn very well.
Speaker 6: Dan's done a tremendous job. I'm a big fan of his,
Speaker 6: you know, because again I had to compete again, thinking
Speaker 6: almost every every every year when we were in Carolina
Speaker 6: and then you know, he goes to Dallas and I
Speaker 6: finally thought I got rid of and he's in Dallas,
Speaker 6: and now deal with that again. I stayed in touch
Speaker 6: with with Dan and big fan of what he's done.
Speaker 6: Also a big fan of Cliff Kingsbury. But but he's
Speaker 6: doing for the Commanders and and and he's dealing with
Speaker 6: Jaye and Daniels has been tremendous.
Speaker 7: It really has.
Speaker 6: You know, Jane's done a tremendous job learning and growing
Speaker 6: and continue to develop. And Cliff probably one of the
Speaker 6: biggest things and best things they did. Knowing that this
Speaker 6: this is their guy, he went out and tried to
Speaker 6: find out what he did best at LSU Okay, and
Speaker 6: took that and kind of morphed that and evolved his offense.
Speaker 6: And now this quarterback is not just necessarily learning a
Speaker 6: whole new thing as much he's learning to do what
Speaker 6: he does best and improve upon it. And the young
Speaker 6: man has worked very very.
Speaker 7: Hard for them.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and to expand even further. We see the best
Speaker 9: coaches and coordinators do this. We see them do that
Speaker 9: research to not just say here is my system and
Speaker 9: you are going to run the plays in my system,
Speaker 9: and we have selected you because you're a fit in
Speaker 9: my system. Instead, you identify plus traits, exceptional traits, and
Speaker 9: you select. It's not the whole playbook, but you select
Speaker 9: from a bucket of those plays that are plus plus plays,
Speaker 9: or that are comfortable plays, or that are plays that
Speaker 9: you can understand make a difference in that quarterback.
Speaker 6: And as you know, we did that in Carolina. We
Speaker 6: did that with Cam Newton, Rob Chazyinski, Mike Schule. They
Speaker 6: go down and they spend time with Auburn. They learn
Speaker 6: as to what they did and how they use Cam Newton,
Speaker 6: found try to find out what best fit Cam and
Speaker 6: then they took those things and they mixed them and
Speaker 6: put them together and created the offense that we used
Speaker 6: in Carolina for for for all those years with Cam Newton.
Speaker 9: Odds are odds that Mike Shula was down in the
Speaker 9: Auburn heat still wearing the same hoodie.
Speaker 7: Yeah, probably Mike's and Mike is a creature of having.
Speaker 3: Little Mike Shula inside joke. I love it between these two.
Speaker 3: It's like, I don't know what you guys are talking about.
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
Speaker 4: Though.
Speaker 3: It's cool to me that you mentioned you were on
Speaker 3: the phone with Cliff and everything that like, you know,
Speaker 3: you were there last year and you're you're talking about
Speaker 3: and hearing about the things that.
Speaker 4: That he's doing with Jane. That's just that's football.
Speaker 7: Is it really is? It's football, I mean, and that's
Speaker 7: what it's about. It's about the business of the game.
Speaker 6: And when you see coaches do some really good things,
Speaker 6: you know, you want to make sure you get an
Speaker 6: opportunity to talk with the acknowledge. I mean things Todd
Speaker 6: Bowles is doing in Tampa Bay getting his opportunity again. Well,
Speaker 6: you know, and somebody the people keep forgetting about Andy Reid.
Speaker 6: I mean, sure, he's won back to back Super Bowl,
Speaker 6: so let's be honest about.
Speaker 3: You'll get bored with success or like me, my wife
Speaker 3: and daughter, they're both just they're more casual fans and
Speaker 3: they're just like we're sick of the cheek. I think
Speaker 3: they represent a lot of people. They don't they don't
Speaker 3: want to hear about Andy Reid. We recognized Andy Reid's like.
Speaker 6: All great, think about he's got to do it again,
Speaker 6: He's got to do again. But you know, the guy
Speaker 6: that he has on his side that helps him an
Speaker 6: awful lot of Steve Spagnol.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and again we talk about defense.
Speaker 6: We talk about a guy that schemes up things, the
Speaker 6: guy that grew up in the Jim Johnson system. And
Speaker 6: a lot of people remember who Jim Johnson was one
Speaker 6: of the great all time defensive coordinators. I put him
Speaker 6: up there with with Buddy Ryan. I mean, these guys,
Speaker 6: you know, they had their own way of doing things,
Speaker 6: and guys like Steve got the opportunity to learn from it.
Speaker 6: And look at what he's doing, look at the success.
Speaker 6: He's an aggressive play caller. He gets after quarterbacks okay,
Speaker 6: when he knows when to back off and play coverage.
Speaker 6: They mix their coverages, they disguise their coverages very very well.
Speaker 3: Read might be by coach of the Year so far,
Speaker 3: that's out of the box pick which it shouldn't because
Speaker 3: they're four and oh.
Speaker 13: The box, I know, but it could be that every
Speaker 13: year he could.
Speaker 3: But this is a year where I think they're making
Speaker 3: more with less and they're finding ways to win. And
Speaker 3: that was how they ended last year frankly too. And
Speaker 3: that's that's coaching. That's margin well.
Speaker 6: And and then you know, and and and and just
Speaker 6: don't forget Kevin O'Connell.
Speaker 13: Oh my pick for coach.
Speaker 6: I mean, we know he's got coach Flores taking care
Speaker 6: of the defense. Go do your thing. But what look,
Speaker 6: look what he's done with Sam Darnold.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 9: Yeah, but I would also I would push back on
Speaker 9: you a little bit. Ron for not the first time
Speaker 9: in my life that I think that hiring Brian Flores
Speaker 9: speaks a huge significant amount of Kevin O'Connell. Not because
Speaker 9: of you know, the prestige and the and the reputation
Speaker 9: as a former head coach, but because you're coming in
Speaker 9: and you're buying into a system that is going to
Speaker 9: come into practice every day and absolutely freaking torture your
Speaker 9: own quarterbacks. And that's an ego list decision. It's an
Speaker 9: ego list decision, and I think he knows. And also
Speaker 9: like not forcing as an offense, Oh you.
Speaker 13: Know this, dude.
Speaker 9: Offensive coaches, Oh man, this is I'm sorry, I'm gonna
Speaker 9: rant a little bit. Offensive coaches, they so often get
Speaker 9: into this habit of high or going after defensive coaches
Speaker 9: who are going to compliment what they do on offense
Speaker 9: less so assert and a completely holistic identity on defense.
Speaker 9: And the Vikings are saying, we are going to kick
Speaker 9: you in the teeth on offense with smart scheme and
Speaker 9: sound quarterback play and a balanced attack and interesting ideas,
Speaker 9: and we're going to be aggressive and we're going to
Speaker 9: throw the ball even though we're up twenty eight to zero.
Speaker 9: And also on the other side, cut loose Brian Flores
Speaker 9: assert you're not complementing quote unquote in the way that
Speaker 9: we talk about complimentary football.
Speaker 13: It's complimentary in.
Speaker 9: The way that it all works, but you're actually saying, Okay,
Speaker 9: I want that unit to assert with its own identity,
Speaker 9: and I think that is a huge, huge trademark of
Speaker 9: what we've seen from Kevin O'Connell and his identity as
Speaker 9: a coach so far, and I think it puts him
Speaker 9: in contention early well.
Speaker 6: That to me is not the only reason, but I
Speaker 6: think a lot of it has to do with the
Speaker 6: way Sam Donold has played, and I think part of
Speaker 6: it too is having the opportunity to practice against coach
Speaker 6: Flores's defense.
Speaker 7: Every day as well.
Speaker 13: I'm better against the Blitzroun.
Speaker 6: Absolutely and they help each other, and that's to me,
Speaker 6: and I agree with what you're saying, because when you
Speaker 6: see the aggressive nature of your defense as an offense
Speaker 6: and you see the way they're taking the ball away
Speaker 6: right now. Yeah, OK, And you can say the same
Speaker 6: thing about Detroit. The way they're taking the ball away.
Speaker 6: That's great. Why because they're putting us in position to score.
Speaker 6: That's one of the big things that we always used
Speaker 6: to talk about in Carolina was winning the takeaway battle,
Speaker 6: and not just that but scoring or putting the offense
Speaker 6: and scoring position. Go back to the year Philadelphia went
Speaker 6: to the Super Bowl. They led the league in takeaways
Speaker 6: in the first half and they're on the opponent's side
Speaker 6: of the fifty yard line, which led to more scores,
Speaker 6: and their offense was the leading scoring team after takeaways.
Speaker 6: So these are things that you try to preach to
Speaker 6: your team, and when you see it happen as an offensive,
Speaker 6: you get fired up. You can't wait for your defense
Speaker 6: to get back on the field and take the ball
Speaker 6: away for you.
Speaker 3: And now they're the opposite the Eagles. I think they've
Speaker 3: lost the turnover battle in ten straight games. It's hard
Speaker 3: to do that is lucky wise, and that's a reason
Speaker 3: why they're they're at two and two.
Speaker 4: Well maybe even lucky to be at two and two.
Speaker 3: You're right about O'Connell and Flores that it takes a
Speaker 3: little bit of a lack of ego, because I was
Speaker 3: hearing reports from some of the beat writers there during
Speaker 3: camp that there were moments where they're like, can you
Speaker 3: just let Sam Darnold and in our rookie like complete
Speaker 3: a pass. There were just some days where they were
Speaker 3: just totally scrambling the quarterbacks and they couldn't get good
Speaker 3: work in. But eventually that that's going to help them out.
Speaker 3: That's that's why I have Jordan Here's she's smarter about
Speaker 3: all this scheme stuff than I am.
Speaker 4: It's why I have you here, Ron Rivera.
Speaker 3: I'd love to have it you again because you show
Speaker 3: me how to wear like perfect glasses that fit perfectly,
Speaker 3: which has been a goal of mine forever. I mean,
Speaker 3: you're killing the glasses game, killing the T shirt game.
Speaker 3: Appreciate you coming in roun.
Speaker 7: No, thank you for the opportunity. Guys.
Speaker 13: This has been a lot of fun, all right, I
Speaker 13: argue with you again.
Speaker 4: I love it. It was great to see you guys,
Speaker 4: kind of you.
Speaker 7: Know, just real quick.
Speaker 6: Whenever we say press conferences, Jordan would sarting if she
Speaker 6: was at the end of the press conference we would
Speaker 6: go over. We would go longer than I was supposed
Speaker 6: to be out there because she would come back with
Speaker 6: something that I have to talk about. Then she says,
Speaker 6: so we'll say, yeah, but what about this? And so
Speaker 6: it was more you know.
Speaker 4: That's like our podcast.
Speaker 13: Yeah, I'd even follow into the golf cart.
Speaker 3: That is very much like our podcast. That's why we're
Speaker 3: still going right now. Like we can't stop honking. But
Speaker 3: we got to get Ron on a plane. You're you're
Speaker 3: heading back home. You got to get to the airport.
Speaker 3: Appreciate you, Appreciate everyone checking out the show. We got
Speaker 3: one more show this week. It's going to be My
Speaker 3: Pick Show with Cynthia Friedlan, So check that out. That
Speaker 3: comes out Friday after noon for Ron Rivera and Jordan
Speaker 3: Rodrieg of the Athletic and Gerald McCoy. What a star
Speaker 3: studded show. We got the big names. Football is back