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Speaker 1: all right, We got an hour plus here. John Middlecof,
Speaker 1: former NFL scout with the Eagles. His podcast is three
Speaker 1: and out, so let's just start with the late games.
Speaker 1: We got college football to talk about a lot at
Speaker 1: the end as well. So Miami beats the forty nine
Speaker 1: Ers twenty nine to seventeen. I thought this was a
Speaker 1: perfect example of a game that San Francisco was a
Speaker 1: little bit healthier. Miami's a finesse team, forty nine ers
Speaker 1: have a lot to play for, and for the second
Speaker 1: game in a row, brock Purty with a really ugly pick.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you now, this team makes more big mistakes
Speaker 1: like Ricky Piersoll lining up wrong, negates a big debo
Speaker 1: play that would have given them the lead. So it's
Speaker 1: not all on brock Purty. And it was a good
Speaker 1: day for Kittle and Deebo, so he's getting the ball
Speaker 1: to the right people. But that last interception by brock Purty,
Speaker 1: how can you watch that and think, yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give this guy fifty large. I mean, I'm watching Sam
Speaker 1: Darnold here literally looks like a poor man's Josh Allen,
Speaker 1: playmaking athletic, tough, taking a beating. They doesn't have a
Speaker 1: great run game, and Justin Jefferson looks like Randy Moss
Speaker 1: will get to that. A lot of this on San
Speaker 1: Francisco is as the roster has been diminished and aged.
Speaker 1: They don't have anything special at quarterback. That's the world
Speaker 1: I see right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, speechless On that last throw, Colin, I just I
Speaker 2: don't know. We talked about this last week when he
Speaker 2: threw the pick to end the game against the Rams.
Speaker 2: Kyle Shanahan defended it last week during you know, leading
Speaker 2: up to this game. I'm sorry, I'm not throwing go
Speaker 2: routes to Juwan Jennings with the game on the line.
Speaker 2: That's not his style and there was nobody in the
Speaker 2: vicinity of that throw in the Miami game. So to
Speaker 2: throw that ball as he's getting destroyed. We talked about
Speaker 2: this last week. He's got to hang his head on
Speaker 2: being an elite decision maker. That's right, right. He does
Speaker 2: not have the physical tools of the of the high
Speaker 2: end guys, and this year in big spots, he has
Speaker 2: made poor decisions. Like you said, I mean throughout the game.
Speaker 2: He's he's a solid game manager. They did a good
Speaker 2: job today of throwing the ball to Debo getting the
Speaker 2: ball the debo. Debo looked like the guy they gave
Speaker 2: sixty million to a couple of years ago Kittle. But
Speaker 2: some players that aren't schemed up, they need him to
Speaker 2: rise above it and he just can't. And this is
Speaker 2: why you can't make a decision before you get all
Speaker 2: the information. And listen, I mean, Kyle's the boss, and
Speaker 2: if he's dead set on paying brock Perdy, if I'm
Speaker 2: Jed York and the guy's cutting the check, like, we
Speaker 2: got to have a serious conversation about this before we
Speaker 2: We just watched Tua. Who they are in that situation?
Speaker 2: Do they want to be paying him one hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty hundred and seventy million dollars? Of course not. He's
Speaker 2: not good enough either. And I just think the amount
Speaker 2: of money we're talking right, it's not a fifty million
Speaker 2: dollar contract or seventy million dollar contract. You're guaranteeing at minimum.
Speaker 2: What they're talking about one hundred and eighty one hundred
Speaker 2: and ninety million dollars. Because his representation has an argument, well,
Speaker 2: look at Trevor Lawrence. He got two hundred million dollars guaranteed.
Speaker 2: It's like, Okay, that's true, but I can't do that.
Speaker 2: Why just because someone else makes a poor decision, Am
Speaker 2: I going to make a poor decision. We've seen everyone
Speaker 2: argue that with Deshaun Watson. Just because Jimmy HASLM gave
Speaker 2: him two hundred thirty million dollars fully guaranteed, doesn't mean
Speaker 2: we're going to do it. So I get the markets,
Speaker 2: the market, but I'm not I don't want that market
Speaker 2: for that guy. And this notion of like you don't
Speaker 2: have anyone else, well, he's got another year under his contract.
Speaker 2: So let's just this year's a disaster for the forty
Speaker 2: nine ers. It's one thing to miss the playoffs, to
Speaker 2: lose this game in Miami, I mean they lost more
Speaker 2: guys today, but Kyle Shanahan, I mean that they are
Speaker 2: now destined to be under five hundred. The Rams headed
Speaker 2: to the playoffs surely again.
Speaker 1: And by the way, and the Rams with a very
Speaker 1: young defense, they're not paying anybody. And now that Pukah's
Speaker 1: free for another two years, Kyron Williams, look how many
Speaker 1: Rams are productive and they're not paying anything. To think
Speaker 1: about that, I mean Puka, Kyraen Williams young, the two
Speaker 1: defensive verse, I mean they're curl. The safety is one
Speaker 1: of the guys that makes money. There's nine Rams. Now
Speaker 1: they pay Cup and Stafford. There's nine Rams don't make
Speaker 1: any money and they're productive. Anybody that's slightly productive for
Speaker 1: the Niners. I mean they're opening up the wallet too,
Speaker 1: like going forward. I look at the Rams future and
Speaker 1: they're gonna win the division this year and I'm like, boy,
Speaker 1: I would love to have that roster. I think San
Speaker 1: Francisco I said this six weeks ago. I think they're
Speaker 1: worse off than they think. I think they have a
Speaker 1: real issue.
Speaker 2: Well, part of the reason I think they fell obligated
Speaker 2: to Brandon Ayuk was because of his connection with the quarterback,
Speaker 2: and he made him and brock At such a good
Speaker 2: rapport and then his leg got snapped. So that's a
Speaker 2: big picture problem. It wasn't just a broken leg. I mean,
Speaker 2: you're talking about an acl and it was a devastating
Speaker 2: knee injury, and now you have the question with the quarterback.
Speaker 2: The other thing is the forty nine Ers have been
Speaker 2: a great place to play quarterback because they had all
Speaker 2: these yard after the catch wide receivers and their defense
Speaker 2: was awesome. Well, now it turns out Drake Greenlaw's Ray
Speaker 2: lewis junior and when he's out on the field, they
Speaker 2: get shredded. I mean, they get destroyed in the run game.
Speaker 2: So they need a quarterback. Well, okay, we need a
Speaker 2: top six to seven quarterback to help carry us. And listen,
Speaker 2: I like the guy I've defended them. But this is
Speaker 2: a business. And once we start talking these crazy numb
Speaker 2: and I don't care about the average per year and
Speaker 2: all that bullshit, the amount of guaranteed money at minimum.
Speaker 2: Once you start talking the tuas and the Trevor Lawrences,
Speaker 2: I just I have to press pause. And these last
Speaker 2: couple of weeks were pretty glaring, Colin, pretty glaring because
Speaker 2: they're trying to win these games. We're not tanking here,
Speaker 2: like they are desperately trying to win these last two games.
Speaker 1: And Deebo was productive and Kittle was productive, and Jennings
Speaker 1: is on the field like, don't give me this. We're
Speaker 1: all beat up. It's like you got three of your
Speaker 1: best weapons. And I'm not talking cluster injuries. This isn't
Speaker 1: like the Rams early on when Pooka, Cooper Cup and
Speaker 1: three of the offensive lineman were out. That's not what
Speaker 1: we have here. We're missing Christian McCaffrey. And again when
Speaker 1: the protection breaks down with brock Purty. He is barely
Speaker 1: out running three hundred pound guys like he is there.
Speaker 1: You know, somebody told me once when it comes to
Speaker 1: quarterbacks in the NFL, there's got to be wow to
Speaker 1: be a franchise guy like you can watch. And let's
Speaker 1: pivot now to the Vikings beating Seattle twenty seven to
Speaker 1: twenty four. When you watch Sam Darnold, you can see wow.
Speaker 1: And I remember, even when he was with the Jets,
Speaker 1: I would tell people you can put a two and
Speaker 1: a half minute YouTube tape together of his Jets highlights
Speaker 1: and there are is shit on there. You're like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, flying left, throwing across his body, and he
Speaker 1: and his connection to Justin Jefferson, who had ten catches,
Speaker 1: one hundred and forty five yards and two touchdowns. I honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't know how you let Donald go. How do
Speaker 1: you break this tandem up?
Speaker 2: Well, to me, you can't. And I've been hammering this
Speaker 2: home for a long time. And it's not just Justin
Speaker 2: Jefferson Jordan Ddison. I mean, these two guys are gonna
Speaker 2: combine probably for twenty five touchdowns. So your best player
Speaker 2: and one of the best players in the league, and
Speaker 2: I don't know where Jordan Addison ranks on their team,
Speaker 2: but he's he's closer to the top than the tenth player.
Speaker 2: So the only goal you have as a team is
Speaker 2: to find the right quarterback, whether you draft that guy,
Speaker 2: whether you trade for that guy, whether he lands in
Speaker 2: your lap as a ten million dollar bridge quarterback and
Speaker 2: you turn out to kind of strike oil. Who cares? Right?
Speaker 2: The forty nine ers party was a good example of
Speaker 2: that a couple of years ago when they were able
Speaker 2: to pivot, they made the trade for Trey Lance. It
Speaker 2: blew up in their face, brought pretty fell into their
Speaker 2: lap at mister Irrelevant, and they were able to make
Speaker 2: back to back conference championships in a Super Bowl. So yeah,
Speaker 2: it sucked losing those first round picks. Who cares if
Speaker 2: JJ McCarty do they win that game with a rookie
Speaker 2: quarterback on the road in Seattle, in that environment, in
Speaker 2: the wet no chance? And Gino I thought was playing
Speaker 2: pretty well. I mean that drive before Sam let him.
Speaker 2: It's like Seattle, that was a kitchen sink game for them, right,
Speaker 2: they ran the fake punt that they had to. I mean,
Speaker 2: this was their season felt like it was on the
Speaker 2: line a little bit today, and I just don't understand
Speaker 2: how you could even contemplate letting this guy walk out
Speaker 2: of out of the building and maybe they'll go we'll
Speaker 2: see at the sea of the playffs. You were in
Speaker 2: a position the Detroit Lions are having the best season
Speaker 2: the history of the franchise, and you can take him out, right,
Speaker 2: you can. I listen at the end of their season.
Speaker 2: You know he still got the Packers next week. That's
Speaker 2: gonna be a really hard game. Obviously Green Bay. It's
Speaker 2: a short week, so a little advantage Minnesota. But I
Speaker 2: can't I couldn't even imagine having the conversation, honestly, because
Speaker 2: I would be much more inclined to have if I
Speaker 2: got to give the Trevor Lawrence contract to that I
Speaker 2: wouldn't want to do it, and I would love to
Speaker 2: give the Baker Mayfield contract, but I gotta keep that
Speaker 2: guy in the built. How could you look justin Jefferson
Speaker 2: in the face and be like, don't worry this this
Speaker 2: young guy. I know he tore his knee and then
Speaker 2: need an another surgery, but we got you, man, right
Speaker 2: when you're on the cusps of being I mean, they're
Speaker 2: one of the best teams in the NFL right now, Colin,
Speaker 2: it's not even debatable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And unlike Detroit, they're healthy. Unlike the Eagles, they
Speaker 1: have no drama. I mean, if you start looking at
Speaker 1: like unlike Kansas City, they got better protection, you start
Speaker 1: looking at this team. Like I kept waiting earlier in
Speaker 1: the year, Week five, six seven, I said this thing,
Speaker 1: it won't it won't last. Sam. I love him, but
Speaker 1: he can get reckless. I'm going to read you a
Speaker 1: stat here this. I think this was the sixth game
Speaker 1: this year that Sam had multiple touchdown passes. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: last sixth game. It's the seventh game this year for
Speaker 1: Darnald with multiple touchdowns and no picks. He only had
Speaker 1: four of those in his career. So now again, neither
Speaker 1: one of us is denying that. Kevin O'Connell is a
Speaker 1: big part of this. But it's more than that. When
Speaker 1: you watch Sam on that final drive, he got the
Speaker 1: you know what kicked out of him. He's making plays.
Speaker 1: It's a deep ball to Jefferson he ran for that
Speaker 1: first down. Like you were seeing the entire Sam Darnold package,
Speaker 1: his toughness, his playmaking, his legs, his vision, his playmaking,
Speaker 1: his deep ball arm. Like you that last drive. If
Speaker 1: you've never seen him play and you watch the last drive,
Speaker 1: you'd be like, who's this tough kid he's got. I've
Speaker 1: said this, I thought his comp coming out. I didn't
Speaker 1: think he was nearly as good as Andrew Luck, but
Speaker 1: I said there's some Andrew Luck was a big, tough,
Speaker 1: thick kid who, by the way, threw a lot of picks.
Speaker 1: Andrew could get a little reckless. Now he's better than Sam,
Speaker 1: I'm not denying that, But when you watch him, there's
Speaker 1: a just an innate playmaking ability. There's a courage to
Speaker 1: the way Luck and Darnold play like they're going to
Speaker 1: take chances and throw the ball in windows because they
Speaker 1: have such trust in their arm strength, and that in
Speaker 1: his career has gotten him in trouble. But I'm I'm
Speaker 1: watching that today and I know I'm writing some notes
Speaker 1: down on the Darnald late fourth quarter drive, and I
Speaker 1: just think it encapsulates what makes Sam Sam.
Speaker 2: Do you remember, I think it was the second game
Speaker 2: of the season. They played the forty nine ers and
Speaker 2: he threw like one hundred yard touchdown. They were pinned
Speaker 2: and he threw a bomb and the momentum started so
Speaker 2: strong early for him, most people went, there's no way
Speaker 2: he will be able to continue this, and we're basically
Speaker 2: at Christmas and he is doing I mean, what he
Speaker 2: just did on that final drive. Because you just listed
Speaker 2: all those characteristics. The intangibles at quarterback are also, i say,
Speaker 2: or defining separator and toughness is a quality we don't
Speaker 2: talk enough about quarterback. That is clearly not a question
Speaker 2: mark with him obviously resonating with his teammates. But I
Speaker 2: just get back to how could you look all the
Speaker 2: good players on your team in the eye and go,
Speaker 2: this guy doesn't give us the best chance. Just figure
Speaker 2: it out. That's all these players are gonna care about it.
Speaker 1: And by the way, this is not a great roster Defensively,
Speaker 1: it's kind of okay. So they're they're they're getting in
Speaker 1: these games where Sam becomes really pivotal because they can't.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's had a lot of these fourth quarter drives.
Speaker 1: It's not a dominating defense. It's it's with Brian Flores.
Speaker 1: They'll take risks, they turn, they take the ball away.
Speaker 1: But he's in a lot of these close games they
Speaker 1: have put him to the This is not like Jared
Speaker 1: Goff early in the season where you could just turn
Speaker 1: and hand it off with a dominant OH line. They
Speaker 1: lost their left tackle. Aaron Jones isn't washed, but there's
Speaker 1: not a ton left. So a lot of this offense
Speaker 1: is very Sam reliant. These wins are Sam reliant.
Speaker 2: Well, because they have explosive wide receivers and he's got
Speaker 2: a huge arm and he's willing to let it rip.
Speaker 2: The other thing is like the way they fell into this.
Speaker 2: They didn't mortgage everything on Sam and then draft JJ
Speaker 2: and they have one hundred million dollar contract like the
Speaker 2: Falcons did, and now we're going to eat a bunch
Speaker 2: of dead money. They did this, and then JJ McCarthy
Speaker 2: fell to him and they got aggressive and they got
Speaker 2: him and it just worked out. And then it turns
Speaker 2: out like just figure out who the best one was.
Speaker 2: You know, Atlanta's in this weird spot where they're gonna
Speaker 2: have to eat a bunch of money, waste money on
Speaker 2: his contract. Like, no one blames Minnesota for drafting JJ McCarthy,
Speaker 2: but once you find this, like this guy was drafted.
Speaker 2: Kirk Cousins was a third or fourth round pick right
Speaker 2: he was thirty seven years old. This guy was a
Speaker 2: third overall pick who obviously his career got derailed. But
Speaker 2: in terms of size, arm strength, and now production, I mean,
Speaker 2: he's gonna throw my guests over under thirty seven ish
Speaker 2: touchdowns and they, I mean they easily could go into
Speaker 2: the last week of the season with a chance to
Speaker 2: be the number one seat. One of the chances that
Speaker 2: JJ McCarthy in the next couple of years leads to
Speaker 2: the number one seat one coming off injury, and two
Speaker 2: he was a project. He didn't even have to He
Speaker 2: never had to play like that in Michigan. Part of
Speaker 2: the thing was like we got to expand him. You know,
Speaker 2: he's got to he's got to learn to kind of
Speaker 2: carry us, you know, as time goes on, because that's
Speaker 2: not how he played in college. Like Sam's been used
Speaker 2: to that day one with the Jets and now that
Speaker 2: it's kind of come together mentally. But the play, I mean,
Speaker 2: that throw to win the game to Justin. He's their
Speaker 2: best player, is Justin Jefferson by and he's one of
Speaker 2: the best players in the league. He looks like peak
Speaker 2: Randy Moss right now with that guy. Yeah, so how
Speaker 2: you break that up? I just don't. I don't think
Speaker 2: you can. I don't think you can look your team
Speaker 2: in the eye, and I don't think you can do
Speaker 2: that to your fans.
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Speaker 1: Okay, I want to talk. It wasn't one of the
Speaker 1: closer games, but I think it deserves discussion. Detroit beat
Speaker 1: Chicago thirty four to seventeen, So Caleb was pretty good
Speaker 1: twenty six to forty three hundred and thirty two yards.
Speaker 1: Since Week eight, he's got ten touchdowns and no picks.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's lost his head coach, his play caller.
Speaker 1: It's been massive controversy. He's in the best division in football,
Speaker 1: so you know, first of all, my take is this,
Speaker 1: this is a mess. We've got like the third coach
Speaker 1: this season, Like it's a mess. We can all say
Speaker 1: that this is a mess, but Caleb is six rushes,
Speaker 1: forty throws. He's not throwing picks. And if you go
Speaker 1: back to his first year at USC and go to Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: that was always one of the remarkable things. And that's
Speaker 1: a trait of mahomes generally higher risk quarterbacks luck you
Speaker 1: know Elway, Josh Allen, you know, risk reward quarterbacks. You
Speaker 1: get a lot of turnovers. This is as bad if
Speaker 1: they hire let's say Rabel, this is the most chaos
Speaker 1: he'll ever be involved in. He's not throwing picks. Since
Speaker 1: Week eight does not have one, and again trailing in
Speaker 1: all these games, they only win one way. Now they
Speaker 1: have to win by shootout, so everybody in the ballpark
Speaker 1: knows they're throwing the football. That's my first takeaway. The
Speaker 1: second takeaway was did you notice Detroit with the like
Speaker 1: fake fumble? And Peter Schrager has something on his Twitter
Speaker 1: account he said, you think maybe Ben Johnson, the offensive coordinator,
Speaker 1: is showing off for the Chicago brass and guys, I'm
Speaker 1: available because it was funny. They didn't need to use that.
Speaker 1: You could argue, just save that for a playoff game.
Speaker 2: What are you doing save for the Bikings game to
Speaker 2: win the division?
Speaker 1: Probably, But it is when Schreger put that, I thought
Speaker 1: that is kind of interesting, is it not.
Speaker 2: I think you have to judge Caleb right now as
Speaker 2: like a draft prospect because every game they're down fifteen
Speaker 2: to nothing, twenty nothing before you even blink. So a
Speaker 2: lot of his big passes, which you could his arm
Speaker 2: strength jumps off the TV screen. But Detroit's defense with
Speaker 2: the injuries right now is pretty putrid, so you can
Speaker 2: throw on him. And it's just when he is making
Speaker 2: these great plays, the games already out of hand, so
Speaker 2: you're just judging him like can I mold that talent?
Speaker 2: Can we and the team? And even Ben? I saw
Speaker 2: Ben Johnson gave some quotes this week just seeing him
Speaker 2: on cross tape. Obviously his talent is it's a tangible
Speaker 2: thing to watch. I do have a hard time like
Speaker 2: winning football, like they got a long way to go,
Speaker 2: the whole franchise. It is just because he's talented. We've
Speaker 2: seen a lot of talented quarterbacks and bad spots get
Speaker 2: to rail. I think best case scenario, if I'm a
Speaker 2: Bears fan, you look at this year like the Rams
Speaker 2: that first year with GoF with Jeff Fisher, and just
Speaker 2: keep your fingers crossed that you can land to McVeigh,
Speaker 2: whether that's variable, whether that's Ben Johnson into a complete turnaround,
Speaker 2: because they are. I thought early in that game it
Speaker 2: had one, two, three can Coon written all over it.
Speaker 2: The team is in disarraye I mean they have some
Speaker 2: parallels to the Jets where they fired Eberflus and they
Speaker 2: got dramatically worse. You know, then more got put on
Speaker 2: the plate of the offensive coordinator. But like he's not
Speaker 2: playing it. To me, it's hard to judge, Like what
Speaker 2: does that look like when it's seventeen to seventeen, you're
Speaker 2: playing a real scheme defense in the third quarter, Like
Speaker 2: he's not in any of those environments. So you're just
Speaker 2: you're gonna have to base it on can I mold
Speaker 2: that talent and can I improve the team because right now,
Speaker 2: none of their plays really matter. Like you said, it's
Speaker 2: it's more positive than negative. Sound like he's throwing three
Speaker 2: picks a game. But I have a hard time judging
Speaker 2: anything with the Bears. Besides just they're the ultimate dumpster
Speaker 2: fire right now. It's pretty sad because you watch some
Speaker 2: of these teams like the tight Every time you look
Speaker 2: up the Titans or the Raiders or the Jacks, like
Speaker 2: they have a lot of bad players playing. You watch
Speaker 2: the Bears like they got really good players, Like if
Speaker 2: they get the right coach, you could see them being
Speaker 2: a nine or ten win team because they have absolute
Speaker 2: more high end starters. But they are just in such
Speaker 2: disarray early in this game, in every game they play,
Speaker 2: I mean, they've been down twenty four to nothing to Niners,
Speaker 2: sixteen nothing to the Lions. They're down again twenty to
Speaker 2: nothing before the even the end of the first half today,
Speaker 2: and it's just like, what does this game even mean?
Speaker 2: And then all of a sudden, if you're the other team,
Speaker 2: you kind of you're like, let's be careful here, like
Speaker 2: you said, well the free alarming that Ben did run
Speaker 2: that trick play in that spot, Like why would he
Speaker 2: do that?
Speaker 1: It felt when Schreeger put that, I thought, it's not
Speaker 1: it's pretty good take. Jamiir Gibbs had twenty first half carries,
Speaker 1: so there's no Montgomery now. And my first take was
Speaker 1: I went and looked, I'm like Jesus, they're just giving
Speaker 1: this guy the rock every play, and you know, I
Speaker 1: love the run game, but you got to have two
Speaker 1: studs Kyen Williams for the Rams, like Blake Korham. If
Speaker 1: they don't trust him, whatever it is, they just don't
Speaker 1: give him the ball much. I mean, Kyen Williams twenty
Speaker 1: five carries is what he does, and he's a smaller back.
Speaker 1: I'm looking at Jamiir Gibbs. He's more the lightning right
Speaker 1: He's he is kind of the home run hitter. I
Speaker 1: look at this and I think if they got to
Speaker 1: the NFC Championship, you got two more weeks, then you
Speaker 1: got two playoff games. Boy, he better not get hurt
Speaker 1: because he's gonna have to carry the ball because with
Speaker 1: this defense. Let's be honest, John, you don't want you
Speaker 1: don't want golf throwing forty times. You want to close
Speaker 1: these games that you don't want your defense on the field.
Speaker 1: You want to keep that defense that injury really Lions
Speaker 1: defense on the field. Gibbs carrying it twenty times in
Speaker 1: the first half. My first takeaway is how sustainable is that.
Speaker 2: I think getting the home field advantage for them is
Speaker 2: bigger than any team in the league, including the Chiefs,
Speaker 2: who feel, you know, like more likely they're going to
Speaker 2: get it now. They are desperate need of some guys
Speaker 2: coming back on defense, because this is not a seven
Speaker 2: game series. And if your offense has an off half
Speaker 2: against the Packers, against the Eagles, against one of these
Speaker 2: good teams, against the Vikings in a playoff game, you
Speaker 2: would be in trouble because those teams can score. So like,
Speaker 2: I have a hard time watching that Lion's defense, and
Speaker 2: who knows. I mean, they keep showing the ir list
Speaker 2: every single week, nineteen guys you know on injury reserve.
Speaker 2: Their offense is pretty pretty freaking good though, even without Montgomery.
Speaker 2: I mean, Laporte is a stud, Jamison Williams just one
Speaker 2: of the faster guys in the league. Obviously, Saint Brown
Speaker 2: is just an incredible over the middle, and they have
Speaker 2: an offensive coordinator who's just a lita's job. I mean,
Speaker 2: the cohesion they have. But I don't know if they
Speaker 2: can win the NFC with all these injuries. I just
Speaker 2: think it's really really we saw it in college football.
Speaker 2: If you get into a cold weather situation, if they
Speaker 2: they could easily be the five seed. I mean, we'll
Speaker 2: see how these next fifteen to twenty days play out,
Speaker 2: But you got to go outdoor. It's not as high
Speaker 2: as scoring. You gotta play defense. We know they can
Speaker 2: run the ball, but you gotta be able to play defense,
Speaker 2: and they would be able to play defense if everyone
Speaker 2: was healthy. But it's just not And I it would
Speaker 2: be pretty sad because of how great of a season
Speaker 2: they had. But it's an all time like, it's pretty
Speaker 2: remarkable that their record is their record, given the the
Speaker 2: injuries didn't start last week. I mean they've been going
Speaker 2: for a month plus and even back Dayden Hutchinson a
Speaker 2: long time ago. So it's I give Dan Campbell a
Speaker 2: lot of credit because a lot of teams would have
Speaker 2: just cracked a little bit and they just found a way.
Speaker 2: I mean, they came out today and listen, obviously the
Speaker 2: bear stink. They came out today ready to kick ass
Speaker 2: and take names.
Speaker 1: Are Week sixteen Reaction presented by Uber Eats. Get game
Speaker 1: day deals all season long on Uber eats. It's time
Speaker 1: to look at this weekend's tastiest matchup. In this week's
Speaker 1: Sunday Night Football, brought to you by Uber Eat, Washington
Speaker 1: beats Philadelphia thirty six thirty three. There's an asterisk because
Speaker 1: Jalen Hurts had a concussion. Kenny Pickett came in. Kenny
Speaker 1: Pickett was okay. Actually his first pass was a home
Speaker 1: run down to aj Brown. Smart gett evenw where to
Speaker 1: go with the ball. But so this is the second
Speaker 1: year in a row where a tire fire of a franchise.
Speaker 1: Last year it was Houston, this year it's Washington, laughingstock
Speaker 1: for a decade plus. You bring in a new coach,
Speaker 1: a sharp offensive coordinator, a very good rookie quarterback who's
Speaker 1: taken second and you're going to make the playoffs, and
Speaker 1: it's like, this is why the NFL is king. And
Speaker 1: if you watch Jaden Daniels who ended up with five
Speaker 1: touchdown passes against the number one defense Philadelphia, there was
Speaker 1: that game winning drive and there was some turnovers early,
Speaker 1: it was pretty choppy, but if you watch that game
Speaker 1: winning drive, you're like, yeah, that's what a franchise quarterback
Speaker 1: looks like.
Speaker 2: And I just go back to this.
Speaker 1: It's one of the things. I mean, ask this kid
Speaker 1: to throw the ball thirty nine times against a very
Speaker 1: good defense and you know, Philadelphia had a big lead,
Speaker 1: so that's a tough environment. Great defense, well coached, teamed,
Speaker 1: good pass rush. I think if I'm you know when
Speaker 1: people said the reason I picked the Commanders to make
Speaker 1: the playoffs, well, I think it was my every year
Speaker 1: I pick a dark horse team to make the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and the reason I picked Washington, And I said, if
Speaker 1: you go back and look at how bad the previous
Speaker 1: owner was and the previous GM and the previous coach,
Speaker 1: you had to clean out everybody. I don't know if
Speaker 1: Washington can win a playoff game, but I thought today
Speaker 1: and again Jalen hurts concussion is out, I think they're
Speaker 1: like Tampa. I think they're a really live dog in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, do you yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean the quarterback's pretty remarkable, you know, for his
Speaker 2: great Obviously, Lamar Jackson's become one of the best players
Speaker 2: we've ever seen. But this guy is better as a
Speaker 2: rookie than Lamar was as a rookie. Now, in fairness,
Speaker 2: Lamar had only played a couple of years in college.
Speaker 2: This guy was there for five plus years. But he
Speaker 2: is much more polished year one than Lamar. And his
Speaker 2: game is somewhat similar, right, I mean his legs today
Speaker 2: he made some huge plays with his legs huge and
Speaker 2: like listen, Jalen went out and that's huge. I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm not a big candy pick a guy at all.
Speaker 2: But he's not playing Jalen Hurst. He's playing Vic Fangio
Speaker 2: in that defense, which is I mean, not just healthy
Speaker 2: and awesome defensive line, and he was he was carving
Speaker 2: them up. I think he he's blown me away. I
Speaker 2: always hesitate to think rookies are going to take the
Speaker 2: league by storm. That's why everyone Caleb, I say, this
Speaker 2: league is so hard. He to do that at this
Speaker 2: point in time in the season, This season wasn't on
Speaker 2: the line or whatever, but they easily could have lost
Speaker 2: this game. Everything was gonna be okay, and he just
Speaker 2: wouldn't let him loose. And they are and he's throwing
Speaker 2: to guys. A couple guys I don't even I follow
Speaker 2: this stuff for a living, Like who's that? You got
Speaker 2: to google them, right, and it's it's not Christian McCaffrey.
Speaker 2: It's his brother, Luke McCaffrey. And Terry mclaurin's a really
Speaker 2: good player, but he's nott Justin Jefferson and those guys,
Speaker 2: I mean, those two look like Montana and Rice when
Speaker 2: they're connect Their cohesion year one is just out of
Speaker 2: this world. And like you said, It is amazing. You know,
Speaker 2: in football, so many people go, why doesn't Virginia McCaskey sell,
Speaker 2: or why doesn't Mark Davis cell It's like, guys, you
Speaker 2: would much rather have this six or seven billion dollar
Speaker 2: asset and live your life through the asset, which is
Speaker 2: going to be completely the same as having all the
Speaker 2: cash and you have to give half the cash to
Speaker 2: the government and no one then cares about you, and
Speaker 2: you're completely irrelt. These people don't sell if they don't
Speaker 2: have to. You know, Dan Sneyder basically had to. They
Speaker 2: got lucky that it all played out that way and
Speaker 2: they just got a real franchise again. But what really
Speaker 2: separates you, you know, Dan Quinn's clearly solid, is when
Speaker 2: you get a special quarterback, it changes your franchise forever looks.
Speaker 2: I think Sean mcdermot's good and their GM is good,
Speaker 2: but Josh Allen is the reason that the Bills are
Speaker 2: the Bills, right, and this guy is going to be
Speaker 2: the reason that this franchise. I mean, there's if you
Speaker 2: had to pick a quarterback for the next ten years
Speaker 2: in that division, you wouldn't hesitate to pick Jaden over Jalen,
Speaker 2: and Jalen's a good player. Yeah, Jack's a good player too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Jayden's better already. I think I trust him more
Speaker 1: from the pocket.
Speaker 2: And I'm not even talking money. I'm saying if they
Speaker 2: all made the same amount of money, if all things
Speaker 2: were equal. I know one guy is on a rookie contract.
Speaker 2: I'm saying, even if that didn't exist, you would take him.
Speaker 2: I mean, his physical characteristics. You know, Jalen's a good runner.
Speaker 2: This guy's a much more explosive runner. Jalen's more of
Speaker 2: a power runner. And like you said, he is. His accuracy,
Speaker 2: you know that was one of the things coming from college.
Speaker 2: He was great deep ball thrower. Well, yeah, he had
Speaker 2: Molik Neighbors and Brian Thomas. I mean, two guys did
Speaker 2: have a chance to be like all pro players in
Speaker 2: the NFL. You're like, how's this going to translate to
Speaker 2: the NFL? And it is because it's like third down plays,
Speaker 2: accuracy over the middle. It's obviously he can throw the
Speaker 2: go route, which he has done all season long, but
Speaker 2: like it'll be third and seven, it'll keep a play
Speaker 2: alive and hit erch or someone over the middle. You're like,
Speaker 2: damn and Kingsbury, what a great hire and This just
Speaker 2: gets back to ownership. What happened. The Raiders only offered
Speaker 2: him a two year deal. They were kind of low
Speaker 2: balling him. The new owner comes in, Hey, we'll guarantee
Speaker 2: you three years, ten million dollars. Come here, come work
Speaker 2: with the number two overall quarterback. Cool. I'm there. So
Speaker 2: it's like we don't talk a lot. We do that
Speaker 2: a lot with like free agency or you should have
Speaker 2: traded up for this player in the draft. But coaches
Speaker 2: Mark Davis would only offer him a two year deal.
Speaker 2: Why because Mark Davis knew that he might fire his coach. Well,
Speaker 2: if you're going to live in that world, you're gonna
Speaker 2: lose out on a guy. Now. Would that have changed
Speaker 2: much for the Raiders? Who knows. But Antonio Pierce wanted
Speaker 2: him and then all of a sudden something changes and
Speaker 2: he's with Washington and safe to say that that was
Speaker 2: that was a huge moment for the franchise Land in
Speaker 2: Kingsbury because him, I mean, he's so good with these
Speaker 2: running and mobile quarterbacks. Yes, were the year. Is it
Speaker 2: even a question now or him Bo Nicks? Because I
Speaker 2: thought Bo Nicks kind of surpassed him. And it feels
Speaker 2: like Jayden after this win.
Speaker 1: Well, and it does matter that Washington's in that Cowboy
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Giant Division. Those are big games. You know, it's
Speaker 1: Bo's playing against Mahomes. But I think sometimes Jayden got
Speaker 1: off to a hot start and Jaden's getting is closing
Speaker 1: it with dramatic wins. So it probably now is back
Speaker 1: in Jaden Daniels court. But you know, you can do
Speaker 1: so many things right in this league, and if you
Speaker 1: don't have quarterback right, you're screwed. It just doesn't matter
Speaker 1: and a chance, you know, I mean a great example
Speaker 1: is that as the Colts, I think they have a
Speaker 1: really good roster, but you know they won a game
Speaker 1: today with seven completions. Like Anthony Richardson, I was texting
Speaker 1: an executive in the league today and I'm like, you
Speaker 1: just you got to go after Sam Darnold. You can't
Speaker 1: win in this league completing seven and eight passes. That's
Speaker 1: you can tell by what a coach calls what he
Speaker 1: thinks of his quarterback. And like the Colts don't want
Speaker 1: to throw the ball, they just don't want to throw
Speaker 1: the ball. So when I look at Jayden Daniels, I
Speaker 1: think the thing that blew me away Day one was
Speaker 1: I remember early in the year they were having him
Speaker 1: throw from the end zone, and Sean Payton has bon
Speaker 1: Nicks throwing from the end zone, Like the Kingsbury doesn't care.
Speaker 1: He'll have that kid at the four yard line, roll
Speaker 1: out in the end zone.
Speaker 2: You don't care.
Speaker 1: And like what you're telling me is is he's a veteran.
Speaker 1: That was this week's Sunday Night Football, brought to you
Speaker 1: by Uber eat has, the official on demand delivery partner
Speaker 1: of the NFL. Uber eats has the best game day
Speaker 1: deals all season long. Order now for game day. I
Speaker 1: saw Michael Pennix today. He looked like an eight year vet.
Speaker 1: He had a pick that wasn't his fault. Atlanta dropped
Speaker 1: some passes. But I watched Michael Pennox today, you know,
Speaker 1: and again thirty four to seven over the Giants, but
Speaker 1: eighteen to twenty seven, a couple hundred yards. You could
Speaker 1: just see the poise in the accuracy. I mean, I
Speaker 1: thought Pennix looked pretty good. I thought even twice he
Speaker 1: threw the ball away and I was like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: he even he even had acumen, and like he was
Speaker 1: very quick, very quick. You know, he's got these mits
Speaker 1: for hands, so he can almost palm the ball. He's
Speaker 1: you know he can. He's a pocket quarterback. But I
Speaker 1: don't look at him like goffer Tua because just the
Speaker 1: way he played in crappy outdoor, whether it's Indiana and Washington,
Speaker 1: he's got huge mits. I think his ball cuts through
Speaker 1: rain and wind. But I watched him today and it
Speaker 1: was sort of like even when he was throwing the
Speaker 1: ball away, it was like, oh, he's totally under control.
Speaker 2: You know, think about this quarterback class. They all, I know,
Speaker 2: that was only his first start, and a lot of
Speaker 2: people are like, well, his penix's box score wasn't great,
Speaker 2: Like did you guys watch the game? Watch the game?
Speaker 2: He looks light years better and more his arms more
Speaker 2: lively and quicker than cousins. My question was, why didn't
Speaker 2: they make this move three weeks ago? Right? You know,
Speaker 2: why did they wait so long? You know you know
Speaker 2: what they wait million dollars?
Speaker 1: The Arthur Blank wrote a check and he's like, guys,
Speaker 1: we got a lot of heat for this. We better
Speaker 1: squeeze every last ounce of juice out of that check.
Speaker 1: I think it's basically the owner. It's like, okay, now
Speaker 1: they may have waited one game too long. But I
Speaker 1: think when you write that check, because I said, I
Speaker 1: thought Cousins was good until Thanksgiving next year, and he
Speaker 1: made it to about Thanksgiving this year and he fell
Speaker 1: off a cliff. But I think that's the reason.
Speaker 2: I was listening to a podcast this week for a
Speaker 2: guy that used to work with Steve Cohen on his
Speaker 2: trading desk, and Steve's big thing always was when you
Speaker 2: see a loser, you have to pivot or we're just
Speaker 2: going to lose more money. And I think if they
Speaker 2: end up missing the playoffs, they rode that the money
Speaker 2: was already spent. You already did it, The mistake already happened.
Speaker 2: You made this draft choice. Who I think Schrager or
Speaker 2: someone reported he hadn't been getting any reps. You know,
Speaker 2: in practice, the backup doesn't get many reps. And when
Speaker 2: you have a veteran like Cousins, he got no reps
Speaker 2: all season, I mean with the scout team. But you're
Speaker 2: not running your own offense. So he's just thrown into
Speaker 2: the fire today when he's been over servicing the defense.
Speaker 2: This is not like there's not a rotation going on
Speaker 2: in the NFL. So he's just thrown to the fire.
Speaker 2: And this was a thing with Pennix. He was a
Speaker 2: ready made guy. This is a twenty four year old
Speaker 2: who's been playing college for ten years. He was a
Speaker 2: He wasn't a JJ McCarthy or Drake May project. I
Speaker 2: think this we see all the time over the last decade,
Speaker 2: these these draft classes that have three or four guys
Speaker 2: to get drafted in the first round, and usually half
Speaker 2: of them after the first year. We're like, ugh, oh, yes,
Speaker 2: all these guys. I mean, obviously, Caleb's physical abilities jump out.
Speaker 2: Jayden has got to be one of the best rookie
Speaker 2: quarterbacks in recent memory. Drake May I mean, he's dealing
Speaker 2: with a shit show there. And you watch that first
Speaker 2: drive today throw a beautiful touchdown against the Bills. You're like, God,
Speaker 2: I understand why if males fired, a lot of people
Speaker 2: would be interested in this job. You watch Penix, You're like, god,
Speaker 2: this kind of looks like Washington, like just his manner reasons.
Speaker 2: Bo Nix has gotten better and better and better and better.
Speaker 2: And that's the thing where it's like, you're just gonna
Speaker 2: risk the percentages aren't on your side that oh yeah,
Speaker 2: JJ's also gonna hit. And all six of these guys
Speaker 2: are gonna be good players. When you got Sam Darnold
Speaker 2: in your lap, I think back to the Donald thing.
Speaker 2: At minimum you got a franchise because you kiss think
Speaker 2: let him hit the open market and get do a
Speaker 2: bidding board. No, you just franchise them and then figure
Speaker 2: it out from there. Minimum. If you're not, if you
Speaker 2: can't just extend them, which I would do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think when I watch Panics today as Atlanta
Speaker 1: one thirty four to seven, first thing is poised, second,
Speaker 1: his accuracy, not to throw, afraid to throw the ball
Speaker 1: down the field. But it goes back to something Herbert
Speaker 1: first game. You could see it. Burrow first, second game,
Speaker 1: you could see it. C J. Stroud second game, you
Speaker 1: could see it. Mahomes first game year one, week seventeen
Speaker 1: you could see it. Even Lamar when he came in
Speaker 1: week eleven for Baltimore, You're like, holy shit, what is that?
Speaker 1: That doesn't look like anything We try to talk ours.
Speaker 1: I mean, I was talking to Giant fans four years
Speaker 1: into Daniel Jones and they're blaming, and I'm always like
Speaker 1: you if a guy is an if like if the
Speaker 1: ONLD line's great, and if he's got he's not a guy,
Speaker 1: and like it's like anything else, if you have to
Speaker 1: talk yourself into stuff, then it's not really it's not true.
Speaker 1: You watch Pennix today, I would absolutely stand behind that
Speaker 1: guy's gonna play for ten years in this league if
Speaker 1: if injuries don't get in the way. That's a ten
Speaker 1: year starter and a multiple Pro bowler.
Speaker 2: I think, if I'm Arthur Blank today, I go, are
Speaker 2: we not a nine or ten win today? If Penix
Speaker 2: had just been our full time starter and we had
Speaker 2: that ninety one hundred million dollars that we gave Kirk
Speaker 2: Cousins to allocate on other positions that we desperately needed,
Speaker 2: and then this offseason, because no one's going to trade
Speaker 2: for a twenty seven and a half million dollar, thirty
Speaker 2: seven year old player that's declining that we're gonna have
Speaker 2: to cut and then have a thirty five million dollar
Speaker 2: dead cap in the second year of our rookie quarterback.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just it's pretty bad business. And when
Speaker 2: you look at the last couple of years of teams
Speaker 2: that needed some bridge quarterbacks, right the Bucks last year,
Speaker 2: they get Baker Mayfield for four or five million dollars
Speaker 2: this year and they make the playoffs. This year, you
Speaker 2: get Sam Darnold for ten million dollars boom. You're competing
Speaker 2: for the number one seed, and we paid a guy
Speaker 2: coming off an achilles who clearly that injury has affected
Speaker 2: his biomechanics of his arm strength, which is extremely weak.
Speaker 2: Isn't it interesting?
Speaker 1: Aaron was bad early, he's better now. Kirk was good early,
Speaker 1: he fell off the cliff, so their bodies have reacted
Speaker 1: differently to it. Aaron actually in the last four weeks
Speaker 1: has been pretty damn.
Speaker 2: Good because far superior athlete.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's probably it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think that has to be it. I
Speaker 2: mean far superior, like a guy in if you're just
Speaker 2: ranking him, you know, if Lamar's a ten, you know,
Speaker 2: Aaron's like a seven. And Kirk for NFL standards, what's
Speaker 2: Kirk three two? I mean it's pretty low. And did
Speaker 2: you have that number that Remember he threw a pick six?
Speaker 2: What it was his charger game and it was it
Speaker 2: was the slowest pass of the year in the NFL
Speaker 2: or something. And I truly listen, I'm no doctor or trainer,
Speaker 2: but clearly that's affecting him because I thought last year,
Speaker 2: before he got hurt, his arm strength was much stronger
Speaker 2: than it was early on in his career, and I
Speaker 2: think they they kind of bet on that guy when
Speaker 2: in the history of sports, and I know we have
Speaker 2: gotten I would say a little spoiled because of Tom's
Speaker 2: run at forty five. Let's just put in Lebron. Those
Speaker 2: guys are outliers. Most guys when they have an injury,
Speaker 2: fall off a cliff, and that's what happened to Cousins.
Speaker 2: And I truly believe that you had all these new
Speaker 2: people and then they fell in love with Pennix after
Speaker 2: the signing, and it was I hated the move at
Speaker 2: the time because I thought Pennis, if you would have
Speaker 2: drafted Drake may or JJ McCarthy been like, okay, Pennis
Speaker 2: was not a sit behind a guy, just start them
Speaker 2: immediately and I listen, maybe they wouldn't have been good enough,
Speaker 2: but I know just watching him, he's way more talented
Speaker 2: this year and today than Cousins. I don't even think
Speaker 2: it's close.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So Rams beat the Jets nineteen to nine. Another strange,
Speaker 1: ugly first half for Stafford and McVeigh, which you know
Speaker 1: your first half is your scripted half. A really rough
Speaker 1: first half, but they had a great fourth quarter. The
Speaker 1: Jets hat a fourth quarter league and just evaporated. The
Speaker 1: Rams are seven and four and one score games and
Speaker 1: the Jets are three and seven and one score games.
Speaker 1: So the Jets have been in games and they can't
Speaker 1: make plays late, and that was typical today. It was penalties.
Speaker 1: You know. It's it's interesting. They got Tyler Higbee, their
Speaker 1: top tight end back, so that's another weapon. So the
Speaker 1: Rams for the first time all year are completely healthy
Speaker 1: on offense. They have all their starters back. This was
Speaker 1: the first game. But it's funny they're healthy and they're hot.
Speaker 1: It was the third straight game with no sacks allowed.
Speaker 1: So I think we would both agree that when Stafford's
Speaker 1: upright and not pressured, he's a top four quarterback in
Speaker 1: the league, and he he is sensational. But when I
Speaker 1: watch them and then I watch you know, it's funny.
Speaker 1: When you watch the Rams win, what I see is
Speaker 1: coaching excellence, Like they just don't make a lot of mistakes. Now,
Speaker 1: Kyraen Williams got an unsportsman like penalty today that killed
Speaker 1: the drive and they settled for a field goal. But
Speaker 1: it didn't it wasn't punitive, it didn't cause a loss.
Speaker 1: But do you I watch the Rams and I'm like,
Speaker 1: they're five players away. I just I think they're good
Speaker 1: enough to narrowly win a playoff game. But Minnesota's so good.
Speaker 1: Detroit and Philly have much better rosters. I think green
Speaker 1: Bay is just getting better. Like on a weekly basis,
Speaker 1: Can the Rams win a playoff game because they're gonna
Speaker 1: win their division?
Speaker 2: Well, more than likely they're gonna be the three seed
Speaker 2: in green Bay is gonna be the sixth. That's a
Speaker 2: pretty tough first round matchup. I would take green Bay
Speaker 2: and green Bay is pretty well suited to play indoors
Speaker 2: and score a lot of points, right, I mean, that's
Speaker 2: some serious team speed. What did they do last year
Speaker 2: when they played indoors against the Cowboys? They lit up
Speaker 2: that scoreboard. So if Love's on, that's a tough draw
Speaker 2: for the Rams. Back to back years getting the Lions
Speaker 2: and the Packers more than likely. Because I don't think
Speaker 2: McVeigh gets enough credit for this. Right. We talk a
Speaker 2: lot about him being this great young schematic guy with Kyle,
Speaker 2: and I mean, Kyle's taking a hit this year. But
Speaker 2: you know Andy, way back in the day when he
Speaker 2: first got hired in Philly. Last year they were three
Speaker 2: and six and went seven in one. I think their
Speaker 2: one loss was like to the Giants. This year, they
Speaker 2: were one and four. Now, granted that was a lot
Speaker 2: of injuries, but I don't give a shit. If you
Speaker 2: have a lot of you're one and four. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's a pretty deep hole to dig out of. And
Speaker 2: now they're more than likely gonna win eleven games, right,
Speaker 2: They got Arizona coming up, who's just not very good,
Speaker 2: and Seattle might just be done by that point in
Speaker 2: time and that game might not even matter. Is this
Speaker 2: guy kind of like a younger version of Tomlin in
Speaker 2: terms of leadership and holding guys together. And I think
Speaker 2: we got very lucky because clearly he came close. I
Speaker 2: don't blame him. I mean, someone starts throwing fifteen eighteen
Speaker 2: million dollars in front of you to go call one
Speaker 2: game a week on Thursday night, the Amazon thing, and
Speaker 2: he turned that down, and he stayed, and we've really
Speaker 2: seen him rise to the occasion these last couple of years, because,
Speaker 2: like you said, I like the Jets. I had money
Speaker 2: on the Jets today just because that West Coast team
Speaker 2: they had just had a huge win that put him
Speaker 2: in position. Even like they were, they controlled their own destiny.
Speaker 2: You're coming five hours morning kickoff in New York, New York.
Speaker 2: The Jets have actually been playing better. Acted that game
Speaker 2: to be weird, and it was for a long time,
Speaker 2: but ultimately the kareem rose and they separated, like you
Speaker 2: said in the fourth quarter. But I think McVeigh is
Speaker 2: like a young Tomlin to just the adversity, being able
Speaker 2: to just handle different guys. Now he's proven that he
Speaker 2: can handle sweet Vets Hall of Fame guys like Stafford
Speaker 2: or Aaron Donald, but all these young guys he made,
Speaker 2: you know, I think it was hard for him to
Speaker 2: have best friend become the defensive coordinator. They've been freaking
Speaker 2: awesome on defense. I mean, this young guy I tacked
Speaker 2: around the league and everything. I hear the violence from
Speaker 2: Verse and Fisk, the two Florida State guys, which just
Speaker 2: people love those two guys around the league, just the violent,
Speaker 2: violent group.
Speaker 1: I mean, they need a number one corner. They may
Speaker 1: take a corner in the first round, and they need
Speaker 1: an offensive tackle and a boundary receiver. But if they
Speaker 1: get a number one corner, dude, that means they got
Speaker 1: two more years of pay nobody on this defense. This
Speaker 1: is the young you know how We've been saying the
Speaker 1: Packers is the best young offense in the NFL. The
Speaker 1: Rams have the cheapest, most economical, best young defense that
Speaker 1: need in a lockdown corner. But I don't know if
Speaker 1: they can win a playoff game because I think the
Speaker 1: AFC is better at the top. I think the NFC
Speaker 1: is deeper. In fact, let me throw this out to you,
Speaker 1: the playoff picture today. I think this is right. Baltimore
Speaker 1: would open at Houston, Denver at Pittsburgh. Would it be
Speaker 1: Minnesota or Green Bay at the Rams?
Speaker 2: Let me bring up the playoffs. I think it's Houston.
Speaker 2: It's yeah. Technically Pittsburgh has the three seeds, so it
Speaker 2: would be Houston Baltimore. It'd be Pittsburgh Chargers and Broncos Bills,
Speaker 2: and the NFC would be Rams, Thackers, Minnesota, Bucks, Eagles Washington,
Speaker 2: which would be a tough game for the Eagles.
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Speaker 1: Amazon Prime for details. They said today that Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: would be willing the announcers to take a pay cut
Speaker 1: to stay. And I think Vrabel's the best candidate for
Speaker 1: the Jets or the Bears. I think if I was
Speaker 1: the Jets, I'd love the drafted quarterback. But they're in
Speaker 1: a tough spot because maybe Riley Leonards in the fourth round.
Speaker 1: But there's I've had two executives tell me that they
Speaker 1: think every quarterback taken this year is better than Shador
Speaker 1: Sanders everyone.
Speaker 2: And after you watch.
Speaker 1: Penix today, I don't think there's any question Jayden, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, so it's like Green Bay the Jets. They're
Speaker 1: in a weird spot, like there's not Aaron's plan pretty
Speaker 1: well now and he and Devonte are cooking. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I think you don't have a choice. I think
Speaker 1: he's moving better. I think you're stuck with Aaron.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't hear what your thoughts were on the
Speaker 2: article that came out. But you know, the Jets, they're
Speaker 2: such an easy target right now that any story you
Speaker 2: read is just one hundred percent believable. There's nothing crazy
Speaker 2: enough that can come out. I do think people would
Speaker 2: be stunned how many of these owners. Now, some of
Speaker 2: these owners are older, so their children like Jonathan Craft,
Speaker 2: you know, in their fifties, or Stephen Stephen Jones. But
Speaker 2: those that have younger children who can be the most
Speaker 2: honest with a billionaire, they're kids. I was watching Charlie
Speaker 2: Woods play with Tiger Woods today. Charlie can say things
Speaker 2: of Tiger that no one else can because everyone else
Speaker 2: that their owner talks to is on their payroll. So
Speaker 2: I think you know the story about the Madden rating,
Speaker 2: it sounds really like whoa provocative and crazy. I think
Speaker 2: these owners get told crazy things by their children all
Speaker 2: the time, and that goes for Jonathan Craft to robber
Speaker 2: Craft and Steven Jones to Jerry It's it might not
Speaker 2: be Madden ratings, but these people have ideas that are unfiltered,
Speaker 2: and I think the Jets aren't that much different than
Speaker 2: the majority of these teams with just these owners that
Speaker 2: are just kind of living and because forever as an
Speaker 2: NFL owner, you you know, when I was a kid,
Speaker 2: people when the nine to forty nine ers were playing
Speaker 2: a candlestick, the de Bartolos had family money. But it's
Speaker 2: not like the forty nine ers. The league wasn't making
Speaker 2: as much. They were very dependent. These guys have monopoly money.
Speaker 2: Now even the poor owners are billionaires. So winning and losing.
Speaker 2: Used to have to win to generate money. Well, now
Speaker 2: even if you lose, you're still getting the five hundred
Speaker 2: million dollars and your team's gonna still make some other
Speaker 2: money in you know, extra revenue streams, so you don't
Speaker 2: have to worry about winning to make money. So you're like,
Speaker 2: I kind of that's my theory on why some of
Speaker 2: these owners no longer. In the eighties ninety seventies, you
Speaker 2: hire whatever coach you thought would make sure or give
Speaker 2: you the best chance to win, even if he was
Speaker 2: a complete asshole. Now it's like, you know, we're making
Speaker 2: money no matter what. I'd rather have a guy that
Speaker 2: you know, might listen. So I wondered, like everyone was
Speaker 2: turned off by Belichick because of that, you know, Vrabel
Speaker 2: and I don't blame for Rabel, Like, listen, I know
Speaker 2: what I'm doing here playing in the league for fifteen years.
Speaker 2: I played at Ohio State. Like, my ideas are my ideas.
Speaker 2: But I think you kind of have to be a
Speaker 2: politician a little bit now to even get hired because
Speaker 2: these owners like don't want to deal with it because
Speaker 2: I can't go broke no matter what.
Speaker 1: Well, it's funny when Harbaugh took the Chargers job. You know,
Speaker 1: some people saw it as a risk, but I know
Speaker 1: Dean Spanos and I know their history because we grew
Speaker 1: up with it on the West Coast. He was never
Speaker 1: a meddling guy. He had a reputation. I thought it
Speaker 1: was earned that he was cheap a lot of first
Speaker 1: round holdouts. But once he moved into Sofar and he
Speaker 1: pays a dollar rent a year, and Stan Kronkey is
Speaker 1: footing the bill. They're rolling in cash and he's not cheap,
Speaker 1: and they're paying for players, and they're paying Herbert and
Speaker 1: they're they paid Harbaugh that job. I was thinking the
Speaker 1: other day the three best JO openings I could think
Speaker 1: of in the last ten years. Lafleur to Green Bay
Speaker 1: was a great job. Aaron in his prime I would
Speaker 1: say Mike McCarthy, you know Dak was in his prime,
Speaker 1: are close to it. It's a pretty good job. And
Speaker 1: then Harbaugh to Herbert and Rashaun Slater, the left tackle
Speaker 1: is a pretty good job. Most of these jobs are awful.
Speaker 1: I don't think because of Woody Johnson and because of
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons in Chicago, I think those are
Speaker 1: the two best jobs, one for personnel the Jets and
Speaker 1: the other just because of the quarterback. But are you
Speaker 1: sure Vrabel should take either one of these jobs?
Speaker 2: No, No, absolutely not. I mean the Jets have proven
Speaker 2: to go to a place where coaches die and because
Speaker 2: their owner does I mean his kids. That's real, Like
Speaker 2: he's given it in part of that article, which I didn't,
Speaker 2: I just assumed he was going back overseas. He's not
Speaker 2: going Donald pick someone else. So Wood he's staying. So
Speaker 2: every day when you go to the office, Wood, he's
Speaker 2: there in Chicago. You have to answer to Kep and
Speaker 2: warned like that's that's not like that's a fact right now,
Speaker 2: Like that's that is what happen is happening. I also
Speaker 2: think Jim, you know the version of Jim that we
Speaker 2: saw with San Francisco, where I think most people describe
Speaker 2: him being the crazy. He's completely different now when you
Speaker 2: watch some of these post games, you know, after wins
Speaker 2: and he's he's pointing at John Spanos, he feels much lighter.
Speaker 2: I feel like much and I know he's driven in
Speaker 2: the chip on his shoulder to win, but he feels
Speaker 2: less trying to take on the world than I think
Speaker 2: he was a decade ago. And who knows, maybe that's
Speaker 2: with money, maybe that's with win the National Championship, aud
Speaker 2: and maybe being around college kids and his dad. I
Speaker 2: think the last six it's a little different atmosphere than
Speaker 2: the NFL, you know, really seeing guys because most of
Speaker 2: his players aren't going to the league, right They're going
Speaker 2: to be citizens in society, and I bet that just
Speaker 2: it just gives you a little life perspective. He feels
Speaker 2: like a different human being. Where you know Rabel. I'd
Speaker 2: want Rabel as my coach, But I just wonder some
Speaker 2: of these owners, like I don't know if he's gonna
Speaker 2: listen to me. These guys want because money now is
Speaker 2: no longer the Jets can win four games for the
Speaker 2: next ten years, and what he's print in cash, so
Speaker 2: and he's given you his opinions, like, let's face it,
Speaker 2: what he's got some vibes of Dan Snyder in Washington.
Speaker 2: It's a little different, but there are some similarities. Who
Speaker 2: would want to do that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, if I was Mike Rabel's agent, I'm not I
Speaker 1: because if you go and look one year from now,
Speaker 1: Joe Burrow could need a new coach. I means think
Speaker 1: about it, like like Dak could need a new coach.
Speaker 1: There's there's I mean, Jalen Hurts and Howie Roseman can
Speaker 1: need a new coach. Like there there were a year
Speaker 1: and I keep saying this John Andy Reid's health. If
Speaker 1: Andy Reid won a third straight I'm not sure you know,
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think he's look at slim right now, Colin. I
Speaker 2: saw I saw a side shot. He looks good. I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 1: What if Sean McDermott gets bounced early that job could
Speaker 1: I think next year you have potentially three or four
Speaker 1: really interesting jobs. I I'm just saying, if I'm Mike Vrabel,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure I want these jobs.
Speaker 2: I don't necessarily subscribe to this line of thinking, but
Speaker 2: it does feel like a lot of people. You know,
Speaker 2: you get that one year window where you either pounce right.
Speaker 2: Mike McCarthy did that, like fired coaches in Green Bay.
Speaker 2: People would come over and he kind of got the
Speaker 2: buzz going, or you kind of go into the media
Speaker 2: and keep your name out there. Rabel's you know, Frable's
Speaker 2: not a big pump is chest out on TV. He's
Speaker 2: working for the Browns. It's not really his style. But
Speaker 2: I think most people would say, you start going a
Speaker 2: couple years away, you somewhat get lost in the shuffle
Speaker 2: if you're not front and center, you know, because every
Speaker 2: year there's a couple of new young offensive coaches. I
Speaker 2: don't necessarily think that way, but clearly some of these
Speaker 2: owners and people, you know, the agents around the league
Speaker 2: think that's kind of risky.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I think some coaches get worried about that. All of
Speaker 2: a sudden, you get lost out of the shuffle. And
Speaker 2: with him, he's always got the connection. If anything goes
Speaker 2: where with Ryan Day, I'm he'd be their number one call.
Speaker 2: And luckily for college athletics, that pays one hundred million dollars,
Speaker 2: so he's always got that on the back burner. But
Speaker 2: I think you got to be careful with that, because
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, you could look in a couple
Speaker 2: of years, in a couple of cycles, and maybe he's
Speaker 2: kind of out of the loop. Yep.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about one game yesterday and then
Speaker 1: we'll get to college. Ravens thirty four, Steedter seventeen. And
Speaker 1: I was thinking about Lamar Jackson until Steph Curry was
Speaker 1: the MVP of the Finals and did it without KD.
Speaker 1: So he won a championship pre KD. But then when
Speaker 1: KD arrived and appeared to be kind of the big
Speaker 1: shot maker for the Warriors, it to some degree hurt
Speaker 1: the overall image of Steph. Not the brand, but kind
Speaker 1: of the image. And then KD leaves, and you know,
Speaker 1: being the MVP of a finals, you know in the Celtics,
Speaker 1: I think like, finally, you and I knew it, everybody
Speaker 1: knew it, but it finally gave him credibility that was
Speaker 1: long overdue as the greatest shooter of our lifetime. And
Speaker 1: you know, there were people I remember NBA players, they
Speaker 1: had a poll several years ago. It's like four years ago.
Speaker 1: Half thought Westbrook was the better player than Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: which was remarkable to me. But I feel like Lamar
Speaker 1: Jackson is become little Steph Curry, Like we're just nitpicking,
Speaker 1: and we just you know, Steph Curry's not a great defender.
Speaker 1: He didn't have a major body take away the three
Speaker 1: point shot. What is he? Lamar Jackson is winning seventy
Speaker 1: six percent of his games, And I understand the postseason struggles,
Speaker 1: but there are great coaches who struggled in the postseason.
Speaker 1: Dan Marino struggled in the postseason. John Elway for a year,
Speaker 1: struggled in the postseason before Terrell Davis right like he
Speaker 1: was getting blown out in Super Bowls, he was losing
Speaker 1: playoff games. I just Lamar had one hundred and fifteen
Speaker 1: passer rating against the Steelers yesterday, and I think we're
Speaker 1: getting to a point where we're not celebrating. I mean,
Speaker 1: Steph Curry is the best shooter and handler of my lifetime.
Speaker 1: Lamar Jackson is the most athletic quarterback of my lifetime.
Speaker 1: And he made a couple of plays against Pittsburgh and
Speaker 1: I'm just like, come on, man, this this thing. And
Speaker 1: you know, Jay Flowers isn't a huge target. Mark Andrews,
Speaker 1: He's got good targets now, not great. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think I feel like I've been defending. Usually I
Speaker 1: don't have to defend great players. I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: constantly defending Lamar Jackson.
Speaker 2: I've been critical just because in the big spots he's
Speaker 2: let you down. You know, last year in the playoffs
Speaker 2: was Taylor made for him and he just got frenetic.
Speaker 2: I thought yesterday was one of the finest performances of
Speaker 2: his career. And he's thrown four or five touchdowns and
Speaker 2: three fifty four hundred yards. I don't care about the
Speaker 2: box score because one they took away his running ability
Speaker 2: and where he evisceerates the majority of these teams that
Speaker 2: he doesn't play that often is he runs and throws
Speaker 2: on you. Well, yesterday couldn't run because what are the
Speaker 2: stealers take away from him because their edge is are
Speaker 2: so fast and they're so used to playing them. It
Speaker 2: was like, we're gonna let Derek Henry run, but you
Speaker 2: are not gonna run wild if you got a pass.
Speaker 2: And he was so much calmer than he was the
Speaker 2: last time he played him, and the way he was
Speaker 2: against the Chiefs where he got really frenetic and he
Speaker 2: eviscerated them, and I thought like if that version of
Speaker 2: Lamar plays a playoff game against the Bills or the Chiefs,
Speaker 2: like this team can win the AFC, Like that version
Speaker 2: of a guy completely calm, like, Okay, I don't have
Speaker 2: to run for eighty yards today. I'm not gonna run.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna dominate because sometimes against them, or he doesn't
Speaker 2: freak out against like the Giants the previous week that
Speaker 2: was that was like a high school game for him.
Speaker 2: And he plays like that against a lot of opponents,
Speaker 2: and then the Chiefs and then the Steelers stride his
Speaker 2: career have kind of been as kryptonite, and he felt
Speaker 2: like early on he're like god is and he just
Speaker 2: he just calmed down and it was like, I'm going
Speaker 2: to dominate you. And the Steelers got a serious problem,
Speaker 2: right and they can't cover anybody that's back to back weeks.
Speaker 2: And Lamar's like, I'm gonna destroy you, like and I'm
Speaker 2: gonna make this look like I do against everyone else.
Speaker 2: And he kind of threw his hat back in the
Speaker 2: ring of the MVP. I mean, he's having part of
Speaker 2: the reason he won the MVP las year because it
Speaker 2: was an awful group, like the competition for the for
Speaker 2: the award wasn't great. He threw twenty four to twenty
Speaker 2: five touchdown this year, he said, by far, I think
Speaker 2: having the best season. Brady mentioned on the broadcast, He's like,
Speaker 2: I think they're doing way more complex stuff in the
Speaker 2: passing game. And obviously it helps when you got Derek
Speaker 2: Henry run a wild but I thought just his calmness
Speaker 2: were in last year in that Chiefs game, it's like
Speaker 2: he freaked out. And a guy on the Raven staff
Speaker 2: kind of described it to me. It was like, it's
Speaker 2: like he's playing Tiger Woods. He was down a couple
Speaker 2: of shots and then he just pressed and you could
Speaker 2: feel it, and so did the offensive coordinator last year,
Speaker 2: those two of them in that game, it was like,
Speaker 2: we're good. We're good, and I'm better than that guy.
Speaker 2: And listen, is he better than Mahomes or not. He
Speaker 2: can play just as good as him as long as
Speaker 2: he stays calm and he did yesterday. And if he
Speaker 2: plays like that and their defense. The other thing this
Speaker 2: is where the good teams, you know, bad teams freak
Speaker 2: out and they do chaotic stuff, like I gotta fire
Speaker 2: this coordinator. Zach Orr, first time coordinator, replacing one of
Speaker 2: the best defensive coordinators we've seen in recent memory. It
Speaker 2: was really bad early, like this is not sustainable. They've
Speaker 2: moved Kyle Hamilton back. Their defense is played a lot better.
Speaker 2: The organization is pretty stable. There's like, take a deep breath, everybody.
Speaker 2: We believe in everybody, Lamar. It's like, put more on
Speaker 2: my shoulders. Put more, and now you see them as
Speaker 2: like god when they play like this, I mean, they
Speaker 2: are a real threat. Right and listen what the Chiefs
Speaker 2: are doing this year. I honestly don't know how they're
Speaker 2: doing it, but it's one of the great coaching jobs
Speaker 2: in the in the history of the league. But the
Speaker 2: Ravens and well, you know, the Bills. I kind of
Speaker 2: give them a little bit of a pass today playing
Speaker 2: the Patriots, but it's gonna be hard, and I think
Speaker 2: they're gonna need They're gonna need Lamar to be exceptional
Speaker 2: because you're gonna have to beat the Bills. You don't
Speaker 2: have to be Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. And more
Speaker 2: than likely for them on the road right that Week
Speaker 2: two or the Divisional round would be in Buffalo. Obviously,
Speaker 2: the AFC Championship more than likely. I mean, I think
Speaker 2: the Chiefs are gonna beat the Steelers here in a
Speaker 2: couple of days in Arrowhead, and if he did that,
Speaker 2: it would kind of I don't want to they wipe
Speaker 2: away everything, but we wouldn't talk about the past if
Speaker 2: he's able to take down Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 2: on the road. I mean, that was a defining moment
Speaker 2: for Patrick Mahomes last year, right going to Buffalo and
Speaker 2: then going to Baltimore. It was really it felt like
Speaker 2: the icing on his cake. He's like twenty eight years old.
Speaker 2: It's like, how do you do that? And I think
Speaker 2: Lamar has an opportunity because their offense when that think's humming.
Speaker 2: I mean, the Steelers are struggling little bit defensively, but
Speaker 2: they're still pretty good, and they just they toyed with them.
Speaker 2: It felt like, didn't it.
Speaker 1: All?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: Let's talk college football? So road teams Tennessee hammered, Indiana
Speaker 1: doutless performance. Boy does at Kurt Signetti talks a big
Speaker 1: game and does him back it up? Smu Hammered. Clemson
Speaker 1: did throw it for three hundred and thirty six yards,
Speaker 1: but they were outmatched. I thought the best get bet
Speaker 1: of the weekend was Texas minus twelve and a half
Speaker 1: at home, and I thought Clemson played about as well
Speaker 1: as they could and they still got beat by fourteen.
Speaker 1: But I want to say this, so this is a
Speaker 1: twelve team playoff that will become fourteen pretty soon and
Speaker 1: maybe sixteen. The reason we have the playoff it was negotiated,
Speaker 1: like these aren't the twelve best teams in terms of
Speaker 1: NFL athletes.
Speaker 2: That's not what it is.
Speaker 1: The reason this is allowed is because there was a
Speaker 1: lot of negotiation. The Mountain West gets involved. Everything was negotiated.
Speaker 1: So it's not going to be seven SEC teams and
Speaker 1: five Big ten teams. That's not what it's going to be.
Speaker 1: But the other thing is most of my life I
Speaker 1: remember arguing this. I'm not even sure if I was
Speaker 1: at Fox or ESPN, but I used to be against
Speaker 1: the playoff because my argument was always this, have you
Speaker 1: ever thought in your life the sixth best team in
Speaker 1: college football by the end of the year could beat
Speaker 1: the number one team? And my answer is no. I
Speaker 1: mean when Nick Saban's fifteen year run, most of his
Speaker 1: teams there were only two to three teams in the
Speaker 1: country that could.
Speaker 2: Play with them.
Speaker 1: Clemson with Trevor Lawrence s Ordashawn, Ohio State, Georgia, maybe
Speaker 1: an LSU team that could play with them. So by
Speaker 1: the time you would get to like the fifth, sixth,
Speaker 1: seventh team, especially if the first round was in Tusca Loosa,
Speaker 1: they were going to kick the holy hell out of
Speaker 1: anybody they played. So the idea that Ohio State or
Speaker 1: Penn State or Notre Dame in a home game, now
Speaker 1: we go to neutral sites, we'll have an upset this weekend.
Speaker 1: But my take is we're overreacting a little bit. Now. Again,
Speaker 1: I thought Tennessee in Indiana would play close because I
Speaker 1: thought weather would be such a factor, but it was
Speaker 1: just cold and clear. But we've got to be honest
Speaker 1: about this. When Pete Carroll was rolling at USC or
Speaker 1: you know again the Nick Saban or Kirby Smart for
Speaker 1: about a three year run, there weren't five teams that
Speaker 1: could go toe to toe with them. The only thing
Speaker 1: maybe be the Natty game a Michigan or in Ohio State.
Speaker 1: So I think this was not predictable. But I think
Speaker 1: we're overreacting because coming up now, John, now we've got
Speaker 1: neutral sight games. I could I would bet almost anything.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have an upset. One of the underdogs is
Speaker 1: gonna win. I think we're overreacting a bit to a
Speaker 1: twelve team playoff that was negotiated. You're just gonna get
Speaker 1: some Boise States in this thing and some ACC teams
Speaker 1: in well.
Speaker 2: I think I think it's twofold. First. I can't expect
Speaker 2: it to be perfect year one. This isn't year six,
Speaker 2: this is year one. On the flip side, I see
Speaker 2: a lot of pushback of everyone complaining that you shouldn't complain,
Speaker 2: we should celebrate this, and it's like, I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean, this all exists because millions upon millions of
Speaker 2: people give their time to be entertained. And I've been
Speaker 2: watching football my entire life and I don't ever remember
Speaker 2: before this year watching Indiana, and Indiana didn't get the
Speaker 2: benefit of the doubt right in most people's eyes, because
Speaker 2: it's like, we don't know you. You don't have any
Speaker 2: NFL players. Who did you beat this year? In the NFL?
Speaker 2: If you make the playoffs, it's impossible to not beat
Speaker 2: some good teams. Plus even the bad teams you're beating
Speaker 2: are full of pros. I texted around some college scouting
Speaker 2: directors I said, how many combined NFL players do SMU
Speaker 2: in Indiana have? And he said, I will have to
Speaker 2: see some All Star game stuff, but probably five total.
Speaker 2: I said, South Carolina, Ole, Miss Alabama. He'd say probably
Speaker 2: on average low end seven for a team. I mean
Speaker 2: Bama eight nine. So the talent, the physicality, like Tennessee
Speaker 2: got their asking. If you just watched Tennessee move around.
Speaker 2: The quarterback is a young, frenetic player right now. Their
Speaker 2: talent on the team is immense. And Indiana we basically
Speaker 2: lumped in the Big Ten and the SEC as equals.
Speaker 2: And because Washington, who was in the Natty last year,
Speaker 2: lost their coach and all their players, wasn't any good.
Speaker 2: USC was supposed to be good, not any good. Michigan
Speaker 2: obviously lost seventeen NFL guys and their coach fell off
Speaker 2: a cliff. So they had three SEC teams Penn State, obviously, Oregon,
Speaker 2: Ohio State, but the rest of the conference for it
Speaker 2: was really bad. Right, So it turns out Indiana, like
Speaker 2: I just think they're not very good relative to the
Speaker 2: SEC teams, Like I don't think they could beat any
Speaker 2: of them, and I think, but they went eleven and
Speaker 2: one and some of these other teams went nine and three.
Speaker 2: This is in the NFL records. Like I said, we're
Speaker 2: comparing apples to cheeseburgers. So trying to do these records
Speaker 2: because in theory it makes sense. Well they're eleven in one,
Speaker 2: because that's how it's always worked, And I just go,
Speaker 2: I don't know. So I think we look back at it.
Speaker 2: In Indiana and SMU, two things can be true. Indiana
Speaker 2: had a remarkable season, the best season in the history
Speaker 2: of the school by a mile, and they're probably not
Speaker 2: a top twenty, Like are they better in Colorado? I
Speaker 2: just looked at the top twenty five yesterday. It's like, well,
Speaker 2: Colorado's got a top ten quarterback probably one, and the
Speaker 2: best player in the country. Indiana, I'm watching them, like
Speaker 2: do they even have a pro their solid defense? SMU,
Speaker 2: I mean that was like JV Verus farsity. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean their quarterback was completely overwhelmed and the ACC is terrible,
Speaker 2: so of course it's overwhelmed. They don't have the talent.
Speaker 2: Who did they beat? So I think that moving forward,
Speaker 2: just because you have two more wins in a bad conference,
Speaker 2: this isn't the NCAA tournament where they're sixty four teams
Speaker 2: like whatever, just throw this team the seventh seed. We
Speaker 2: only had twelve spots, and I thought we got pretty
Speaker 2: let down for a lot of people that dedicate a
Speaker 2: lot of time that they don't even have the horse
Speaker 2: in the race. They just want to be entertained. You're like,
Speaker 2: this doesn't look right.
Speaker 1: Well, and also it's gonna get potentially worse because if
Speaker 1: you really look at Washington, they have an excellent young
Speaker 1: quarterback and Jetfish had a great recruiting year. So Washington's
Speaker 1: going to be interesting team.
Speaker 2: Next year. They'll be back.
Speaker 1: They'll be a top twenty team. Michigan just go the
Speaker 1: best quarterback, and again they've recruited at a very high level.
Speaker 1: Michigan will be viable. I just saw this week and
Speaker 1: USC went and bought to SEC defensive linemen, so I
Speaker 1: and their schedule is pretty weak by Big Ten standards.
Speaker 1: So my takeaway is the Big Ten, to your point,
Speaker 1: was top heavy and very weak. I don't think it'll
Speaker 1: be that next year. I think Ohio State will still
Speaker 1: be great, but I think Michigan, USC, Washington will be
Speaker 1: much better. And I think Oregon's and Penn State are
Speaker 1: going to remain powers. Because Landing and James Franklin are
Speaker 1: top ten recruiters easily in the country. So I think
Speaker 1: this year we got Indiana, not that it's a one
Speaker 1: off I did. I kind of felt like when I
Speaker 1: was watching Indiana play, it's not that they lost, it's
Speaker 1: that if I told you it was twenty seven to
Speaker 1: seventeen and you didn't watch the game, you'd be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that was a game. Indiana was so gutless, punting down
Speaker 1: three score second half in plus territory. I think it
Speaker 1: really it was the way Indiana lost, which was like
Speaker 1: we just we know we can't compete. We don't want
Speaker 1: to be humiliated, so we're just gonna try. I think
Speaker 1: that really pissed people off. It was like, Okay, if
Speaker 1: you're gonna play like that, just put Ole miss in
Speaker 1: the trial.
Speaker 2: I thought of a rule that if you were on
Speaker 2: the fence of a couple teams, that you have to
Speaker 2: have minimum more than two guys on each side of
Speaker 2: the ball that would start for your opponent. And did
Speaker 2: Indiana have four guys on their starting twenty two that
Speaker 2: would start for Notre Dame DoD They have one? Maybe
Speaker 2: how many guys on SMUs starting eleven on offensive defense
Speaker 2: would start for Penn State two maybe where that's the
Speaker 2: that's the argument for or Ole Miss, South Carolina and Alabama. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they might not have won, probably wouldn't have, but I
Speaker 2: know the talent discrepancy, Like I don't have a big
Speaker 2: issue with Tennessee getting their askit because I don't think
Speaker 2: the talent discrepancy. Obviously Ohio State's better and I mean
Speaker 2: could win the National Championship pretty easily, but like Tennessee,
Speaker 2: you could tell physically it's like a quarterback is throwing
Speaker 2: the ball over the map. They got NFL players all
Speaker 2: over the field. So I could live with that game.
Speaker 2: I can't live with the Indiana game, where it's like
Speaker 2: I've never watched this program. I've been watching college football
Speaker 2: for three decades and I can I do this for
Speaker 2: a living, so I know, well, they don't have any talent,
Speaker 2: so it's like what's going on? And then Signetti, I
Speaker 2: think some of his comments to Sabin before the game,
Speaker 2: bragging it out. I looked at their schedule, they go
Speaker 2: two Penn State, two, Oregon to Iowa, and like you said,
Speaker 2: the Big Ten is going to be better, that game
Speaker 2: is going to be circled. The big ten coaches are
Speaker 2: going to want to beat the shit out of him.
Speaker 2: I will be stunned. Six and six. They are going
Speaker 2: to be a target next year, and I hope they
Speaker 2: enjoyed this year because it's not going to be like
Speaker 2: that moving forward. I'll promise you that.
Speaker 1: So before we get to the quarterfinal games, I do
Speaker 1: think we have a potential upset. Listen Tennessee, Ohio State
Speaker 1: Ryan Day. The critics couldn't go back to their Reddit boards.
Speaker 1: But here's what I really took away. Clemson, they deserve credit.
Speaker 1: They fought to the very end, and they don't have again,
Speaker 1: they don't have transfer portal guys, and they don't recruit.
Speaker 1: Even when Dabo was winning a Natty, they didn't recruit
Speaker 1: like Alabama and Georgia LSU. They never have. They just
Speaker 1: don't and they don't use a transfer portal. So I
Speaker 1: think Dabbo's a hell of a coach. But my takeaway
Speaker 1: on that is if Ohio States, if Will Howard is
Speaker 1: as good as he was against Tennessee, I don't know
Speaker 1: how Texas stops them. I mean, Clemson was throwing the
Speaker 1: ball all over the yard, they were throwing it up
Speaker 1: the sideline, out of the backfield, seam routes. I mean,
Speaker 1: when you think of Clemson, you don't think three hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty yards passing. I know Texas won thirty eight
Speaker 1: twenty four, but that twenty four points. I looked at
Speaker 1: that and I thought, Jesus Texas plays Arizona State next
Speaker 1: thirteen and a half point favorite. Maybe that's not an issue,
Speaker 1: but if I'm Ohio State in my passing game, I
Speaker 1: after this weekend, Ohio State's my favorite to win the
Speaker 1: national championship, not Texas. I was almost dismayed. Not just
Speaker 1: that Clemson through but the variety of throws, the third
Speaker 1: down throws, the wide open targets in the middle of
Speaker 1: the field. It was startling to me.
Speaker 2: Well, their quarterbacks really come along. I mean, he's the
Speaker 2: guy to keep it if he goes back to school.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think he'll be in consideration to have
Speaker 2: a chance to be a really high draft pick in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty six. That kid's really gotten a lot better
Speaker 2: since that first game at Georgia, and last year was
Speaker 2: pretty bumpy. I like kid club Nick a lot, and
Speaker 2: they had one of the great I think freshman recruiting
Speaker 2: classes at wide receiver in recent memory, those couple five
Speaker 2: star kids. But to me, Sark has had to coach
Speaker 2: around Quinn Yewers a lot of the year. And you
Speaker 2: see that when we talk about coaching with some of
Speaker 2: these young rookie quarterbacks. What do you call on third
Speaker 2: and seven? Or are you willing to call something aggressive
Speaker 2: on second and ten? Are you just trying to throw
Speaker 2: like a screen or you know, a draw play. I
Speaker 2: think he coaches around Quinn. You were because to me,
Speaker 2: he is a pretty big roller coaster. You don't know
Speaker 2: what you're getting series to series, and this is where
Speaker 2: you know the seeding. When Ohio State's on. I mean
Speaker 2: they showed up in that game, you went, holy hell,
Speaker 2: oh no. It was like they were hitting guys like
Speaker 2: they were you know, Dre Greenlawn and Fred Warner. It's
Speaker 2: like the defense, how good Jeremiah Smith is? Will Howard
Speaker 2: looked like Peyton Manning. I mean, he was one of
Speaker 2: the better games of his life. Yeah, and Ryan Day listen,
Speaker 2: they'd had a long time to soak up that loss
Speaker 2: coming at home. I listened. I picked Tennessee. Five minutes
Speaker 2: into that game, you went, this could be fifty to nothing.
Speaker 2: This team is going to try to injure everyone inside.
Speaker 2: Can they keep that up again again? You know, Dan Lanning,
Speaker 2: this is where Oregon got screwed. They have to play
Speaker 2: that team in their opening game after rose Ball two,
Speaker 2: which is not a huge advantage because it's not like
Speaker 2: Ohio State fans aren't used to travel into that game.
Speaker 2: Which is a cool game that the rose Ball gets Oregon.
Speaker 1: Ohio states that may record the ratings for that game
Speaker 1: may set a college football non national championship record. I'm
Speaker 1: not joking.
Speaker 2: I think if you're Oregon, you just go. We had
Speaker 2: the best season where the only undefeated team and Penn
Speaker 2: State gets to play Boise and Texas gets the players
Speaker 2: on the state and we got to play that the
Speaker 2: biggest payroll in the history of college football with NFL
Speaker 2: guys all over that we had to like knock down,
Speaker 2: drag out to beat at home. That's that sucks for them. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know a team that's never won a national championship
Speaker 2: that if I told you right now they were getting
Speaker 2: a good draw, you would like them a lot more.
Speaker 2: But you're like, damn they they'd have to go through
Speaker 2: three tough games, right, They'd have to beat Ohio State,
Speaker 2: they have to beat Texas and then they probably have
Speaker 2: to beat Penn State or Georgia. I mean, that's that's
Speaker 2: a murderer's row. So and they had to beat Penn State,
Speaker 2: you know, to in the conference championship. So I listen,
Speaker 2: if if Oregon were to win a national championship, it
Speaker 2: would be really really impressive. I can't take Texas because
Speaker 2: of the quarterback, but they're on the team. I mean,
Speaker 2: there were that goal line stopped that they had basically
Speaker 2: end of the game. Again, they can really rev it up.
Speaker 2: I mean they got guys on defense. You're like, holy shit,
Speaker 2: and you know the skill. Their two running backs are
Speaker 2: really good, I extent quarterback. If you told me Caide
Speaker 2: Club Nick Clemson quarterback was Texas quarterback, I'd be like,
Speaker 2: watch out for they might be my pick. And I
Speaker 2: just is Will Howard going to play like that every game?
Speaker 2: Is he going to play like that against Dan Lanning's
Speaker 2: defense is if he does, they'll probably win. Right. If
Speaker 2: he's gonna If he's going to be Peyton Manning junior,
Speaker 2: then Ohio State's going to be a serious problem for
Speaker 2: anyone they're playing.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's wrap it up. Penn State minus eleven against
Speaker 1: Boise State. I actually think jenty run he ran for
Speaker 1: almost tuner yards against Oregon. I think these are neutral
Speaker 1: site games. Now it's a whole different ballgame in college football.
Speaker 2: Totally.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the college football team. You know, the seventy percent
Speaker 1: of NFL games are one score, one possession games. That's
Speaker 1: not college football. Home teams win. I think Boise State.
Speaker 1: I think Boise State is going to be you know,
Speaker 1: Penn State maybe lulled to sleep opening with SMU at
Speaker 1: home blowing them out, and now they look at see
Speaker 1: Boise State hard to get that locker room revved up.
Speaker 1: SMU is a bigger name to some of those Penn
Speaker 1: State players than Boise State. They couldn't, you know, they
Speaker 1: don't even know help. Most college players out east don't
Speaker 1: know much about Boise State. Can Boise State hang with them?
Speaker 1: I think they can.
Speaker 2: I do think Penn State's lucky that they got this
Speaker 2: generational player on Boise State. It's an easy one for
Speaker 2: the defensive coordinator circle. I mean, this guy had like
Speaker 2: a Barry Sanders Oklahoma state level season. So it's to
Speaker 2: me if they were much more of like the Kellen Moore,
Speaker 2: more of a complete team than a one man band.
Speaker 2: I think it would be a little different. You might
Speaker 2: look down upon them, but I think when you're playing
Speaker 2: a guy that just sitting next to Travis Hunter on
Speaker 2: that Saturday night at the Heisman Trophy, it's easier to
Speaker 2: get up. I also think, and this is my argument,
Speaker 2: Like listen, I started my career in the Whack, whichasically
Speaker 2: turned it into the Mountain West. The difference of size
Speaker 2: and strength on the line of scrimmage. We saw it
Speaker 2: in Indiana and SMU against You know, their two opponents
Speaker 2: at the Notre Dame and Penn State just overwhelmed them
Speaker 2: at the line of scrimmage on defense. And I don't
Speaker 2: know if Boise State their passing offense isn't good enough.
Speaker 2: So I'm putting ten guys in the box be like
Speaker 2: we are you gonna throw on me? And I think
Speaker 2: it's a very, very tough matchup for Boise State. I
Speaker 2: also think Penn State if this was the NFL and
Speaker 2: these games were out in the cold weather, I think
Speaker 2: Penn State and Notre Dame would be built for it.
Speaker 2: Play defense, run the ball down your throat, play like
Speaker 2: the forty nine ers did with Jimmy Garoppolo, We're just
Speaker 2: gonna freezing cold weather. Let's roll. I mean, you watch
Speaker 2: Notre Dame. They would love every game at nineteen degrees
Speaker 2: because that's in same with Penn State, freezing cold, snow, rain,
Speaker 2: That's how they would want to play. That's where these
Speaker 2: neutral site games, you know. I think Notre Dame is
Speaker 2: a good example. Like I actually kind of like them
Speaker 2: against Georgia, but then you put the dome. But you
Speaker 2: put them in a dome, it does take away there. Straight.
Speaker 2: If you told me that game was outside in a
Speaker 2: cold weather spot, I'd be like, George is in for it.
Speaker 2: In a dome team speed. Georgia is gonna be a
Speaker 2: little faster, but Notre Dame can definitely win that game. Listen.
Speaker 2: I love Boise State and rooting for him for a
Speaker 2: long time. I think this is a really, really tough
Speaker 2: matchup for them. Same with a state.
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, I think Penn State's gonna win. I think
Speaker 1: your point on Notre Dame Georgie is well taken. Texas
Speaker 1: should beat Arizona State. So I said before the year,
Speaker 1: I thought Oregon would beat Ohio State at auxon. I
Speaker 1: thought Ohio State would beat Oregon on the second matchup,
Speaker 1: I think I like Ohio State to win and cover
Speaker 1: against the Ducks.
Speaker 2: I think one big difference between Penn State, Georgia, and
Speaker 2: Notre Dame then the other three top teams in Texas, Oregon,
Speaker 2: Ohio State. They are so explosive on the outside, like
Speaker 2: they feel like an NFL team at wide receiver in
Speaker 2: the skill position. Penn State and Notre Dame just don't.
Speaker 2: Penn State's tight end is gonna be a top twenty player, yeah,
Speaker 2: but they are not as explosive at the wide receiver position.
Speaker 2: So I mean, like you said, I think Oregon, Ohio State,
Speaker 2: I mean that could feel like the national championship game.
Speaker 2: And I think Texas, if the quarterback can just play
Speaker 2: under control, which he's proven he can't really for four quarters,
Speaker 2: they could be pretty I just don't trust them and
Speaker 2: Notre Dame Georgia, whoever wins that game, might be. Honestly,
Speaker 2: I kind of like the draw for Penn State. Penn
Speaker 2: State plays Boise, wins that game and then plays that
Speaker 2: Penn State and Texas are gonna get putent. I mean,
Speaker 2: their enormous favorites favorites in the second round are gonna
Speaker 2: be playing two teams that are gonna be coming out
Speaker 2: of a war zone. I mean Ohio State and Oregon
Speaker 2: and Notre Dame in Georgia. Bodies are gonna be left
Speaker 2: on the field in that game, right, So I think
Speaker 2: that is a massive advantage if both those If Texas
Speaker 2: and Penn State take care of business. I mean Ohio
Speaker 2: State pulled out their quarterback with nine minutes to go
Speaker 2: in the game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think what we're going to see in this playoff,
Speaker 1: and let's go back to the playoff as a whole,
Speaker 1: is I think it's going to expand to fourteen teams
Speaker 1: and possibly sixteen. On any given Saturday, you may get
Speaker 1: three really great games between good teams. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of blowouts in college football. It's just the way the
Speaker 1: sport works. It's of all the American sports team sports,
Speaker 1: it's the most have and have not sport, even you know, baseball.
Speaker 1: Obviously now with the regional network's dying, it's getting more
Speaker 1: have and have not. There's like six teams that have
Speaker 1: money and like twenty six or twenty four that don't.
Speaker 1: But I think the neutral site games, I think Oregon
Speaker 1: and Ohio State is going to feel like USC Texas.
Speaker 1: Remember that game with the stealth fighters flying over where
Speaker 1: you have like eighteen pros. The first game was great.
Speaker 1: I think Ohio State Oregon becomes the game of the year.
Speaker 1: I also think it is hard to play perfect football
Speaker 1: back to back weeks. Ohio State was nearly perfect. It's
Speaker 1: hard to duplicate that on back to back weeks.
Speaker 2: I also think that these guys have never played a
Speaker 2: season this long, right, I mean, a lot of these
Speaker 2: teams played in conference championship games. Some of the teams
Speaker 2: that didn't just play this first round. I mean you
Speaker 2: start looking ahead, they still got three more games. I mean,
Speaker 2: and you saw some just collateral damage, as you know,
Speaker 2: notre Dame at defensive lineman get banged up. You're talking
Speaker 2: about by the time you get to the semi finals,
Speaker 2: can you stay healthy enough, which which honestly could just
Speaker 2: be a determining factor for whoever wins it just a
Speaker 2: team with the most health because we've been hammering at
Speaker 2: home and these coaches have been these teams. The depth
Speaker 2: isn't near the same, you know, in the peak of
Speaker 2: the saban Era. So what I lost a first rounder,
Speaker 2: I got a nineteen year old first rounder behind them? Right,
Speaker 2: those days are done. I mean there's a massive drop off.
Speaker 2: Some of these teams are losing guys. Ohio State put
Speaker 2: a quarterback in the game when the yank Well Howard,
Speaker 2: he's in the transfer portal, and Ryan Day had to
Speaker 2: have a talk with this team like, hey, guys, are
Speaker 2: we cool with keeping him around? You know the cause
Speaker 2: these guys are in weird spots. Penn State's backup quarterback
Speaker 2: is gone, so and that's not obviously we talk a
Speaker 2: lot about the quarterbacks, but it could be you know,
Speaker 2: a backup linebacker, a freshman kid that might have had
Speaker 2: to be thrust in if someone got injured. So we
Speaker 2: got a long way to go. I mean, this is
Speaker 2: you see the NFL guys are dropping like flies in college.
Speaker 2: These guys aren't as big. They're not especially some of
Speaker 2: these guys at eighteen nineteen years old that are playing.
Speaker 2: Their bodies aren't as developed taking a lot of big hits.
Speaker 2: It's not like the violence in these games. It's that
Speaker 2: much different. I mean, how hard was Ohio State and
Speaker 2: No Dame and these teams hidden the physicality And honestly,
Speaker 2: I appreciate the one thing that jumped out to me
Speaker 2: about this weekend, which was obviously a pretty big letdown
Speaker 2: with the blowouts. Yeah, we talk about a lot about
Speaker 2: nil and people not having It feels like guys are
Speaker 2: mercenaries now, and maybe that's the case, but it does
Speaker 2: feel like the guys playing in the game are just
Speaker 2: all in and trying their one effort and you feel that,
Speaker 2: you know, the teams is not like ten. None of
Speaker 2: these teams took their foot off the pedal like pen
Speaker 2: Clemson just came back because they got NFL guys. It
Speaker 2: wasn't like Texas stuff trying right.
Speaker 1: John Middlecoff his podcast is three and out.
Speaker 2: Good job Buddy, Merry Christmas, going Merry Christmas.
Speaker 1: The volume