Speaker 1: The volume. This week on Prime Cuts, Chad Millman, Sharper Square,
Speaker 1: Nick Wright on the best NFL job for Jim Harbaugh
Speaker 1: and my top takes of the week, all Right, saying
Speaker 1: it wasn't his decision. Pete Carroll classy as he stood
Speaker 1: at the podium, energized, saying there are waves to surf.
Speaker 1: Pete's at a house in Hawaii for some time. Very
Speaker 1: active guy, Manhattan Beach, Hawaii. He's a very young seventy
Speaker 1: two years old. I don't think energy, intelligence, stamina are
Speaker 1: the questions for Pete Carroll. I think he's somebody that
Speaker 1: could interview for the charger's job. If Lincoln Riley left tomorrow,
Speaker 1: USC would talk to him. That's not the question. I
Speaker 1: do think there's a question that defensive coaches just do
Speaker 1: not want to confront. Carroll's telling me that Gino Smith
Speaker 1: is the answer. I don't know. Sean McVay moved off Goff.
Speaker 1: Goff's a lot better than Geno Smith. Kyle Shanahan moved
Speaker 1: off Jimmy Garoppolo, who I think is better than Geno Smith,
Speaker 1: and both of those quarterbacks got to a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: But when I hear Ron Rivera say, Sam Howe we're
Speaker 1: good at quarterback or Pete say Gino Smith, Drew Locke.
Speaker 1: Come on, guys, the culture is changing beneath your feet.
Speaker 1: Come on, guys, that's not good enough. Pete Carroll has
Speaker 1: an NCAA championship and a Super Bowl. Who are the quarterbacks?
Speaker 1: Two elite quarterbacks, Matt Liinert as a college quarterback and
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson in his prime as an NFL quarterback. Pete's
Speaker 1: defensive philosophies, ideologies, details haven't changed. He had a lot
Speaker 1: of quarterbacks at us SEE when he had Lionert, those
Speaker 1: were his best teams. And he had a lot of
Speaker 1: quarterbacks in Seattle, right, But when he had Russell in
Speaker 1: his prime, he got to Super Bowls. So defensive coaches
Speaker 1: struggle with two things. Urgency at the position of quarterback. Listen,
Speaker 1: Belichick's a legend, right. Tom Brady privately will tell you
Speaker 1: he has no idea about offense. None. Now, Pete maybe
Speaker 1: knows more about offense than Bill Belichick. But I think
Speaker 1: that's the number one thing, is that Pete can go
Speaker 1: to a place that has an established offensive culture. But
Speaker 1: I think it's a legitimate reasonable question about defensive coaches.
Speaker 1: I mean, when Mike Tomlin's telling me Kenny Pickett's good enough,
Speaker 1: Kenny Pickett's the fifth best quarterback in that division, Burrow Lamar,
Speaker 1: Deshaun Flaco, Kenny Pickett. Come on. I mean, Mason Rudolph
Speaker 1: looks better than Kenny Pickett. Is he the sixth best?
Speaker 1: Come on? And when Ron Rivera, Sam Hell's good enough?
Speaker 1: Come on? So I think that's nothing against those particular quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: But that's my thing with Pete. Chargers already have a
Speaker 1: great quarterback, great young talent. Maybe that's a good fit.
Speaker 1: But I've been watching this for years. Andy Reid had
Speaker 1: Alex Smith said not good enough. Alex Smith's playoff quarterback.
Speaker 1: He was a successful quarterback in San Francisco and Kansas City,
Speaker 1: both conferences, and he reads like we're upgrade McVay, Goff,
Speaker 1: Shanahan Garoppolo. And I just think offensive coaches have a
Speaker 1: higher standard of offense and the league rules now. I mean,
Speaker 1: even if you go look at the National Championship, three
Speaker 1: of the four teams Kalen de boor, Jim Harbass, Steve
Speaker 1: Sarksian offensive coaches. Right, Kirby Smart's a great coach. Nick
Speaker 1: Saban are a great coach One didn't make it, and
Speaker 1: one was the fourth best team in the playoff. So
Speaker 1: I just think the world's changing. And that's what worries
Speaker 1: me about Pete. It's not his energy, it's not his intelligence,
Speaker 1: it's not his commitment, it's not his personnel decisions. That's
Speaker 1: not it. He's a good enough coach to coach somewhere else.
Speaker 1: And these defensive coaches, they see the world. Run the ball,
Speaker 1: control the clock, don't make any mistakes at quarterback, play
Speaker 1: good defense. Well, Seattle wasn't playing good defense. And I
Speaker 1: don't like turnovers either, but el Way, Peyton Manning, Eli Manning,
Speaker 1: Josh Allen, Matt Stafford. They turned them ball over occasionally.
Speaker 1: They make up for it in fourteen possessions, fifteen possessions
Speaker 1: with great elevated quarterback play. So that's my concern with Pete.
Speaker 1: Everything else, he checks a lot of boxes. What's next
Speaker 1: for the Seahawks. I would look at Jim Harbaugh, Shane Waldron,
Speaker 1: I'd look at Ben Johnson. I think dan Quinn's lateral move.
Speaker 1: Dan Quinn's success in Atlanta was tied to a great
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. Before and after it never great
Speaker 1: got Kyle great almost won a Super Bowl. Maybe he
Speaker 1: should have won a super Bowl. So, I mean even
Speaker 1: Belichick when he lost Josh McDaniels and Tom Brady, Dante
Speaker 1: Scarnecki offensive line coach, the greatest coach ever, just didn't
Speaker 1: have the aptitude offensively to turn things around. Mac Jones
Speaker 1: got worse over time, not better. Do you think if
Speaker 1: mac Jones was given McVeigh he would have gotten significantly
Speaker 1: worse over time? I don't. Jared Goff got better over time,
Speaker 1: then they moved on. Matt Stafford came in. He's gotten
Speaker 1: better over time. Brock Perdy, you think it would work
Speaker 1: if he had a d defensive coach? Do you think
Speaker 1: Kyle Shanahan has a connection. Why is Jared Goff playing
Speaker 1: so well? Ben Johnson? Why was Matt Ryan an MVP?
Speaker 1: Kyle Shanahan? So I've been on this now for two
Speaker 1: to three years. It's not that the defensive coaches lack
Speaker 1: certain skills, abilities and talent. That's not it. The league
Speaker 1: is changing right below their feet, and so Seattle kind
Speaker 1: of felt like Pete. If you're locked in on Gino
Speaker 1: and Drew Locke, that's not gonna work for us. So
Speaker 1: I think Seattle is one of the few teams in
Speaker 1: the NFL that has the personnel and draft picks to
Speaker 1: move from their draft position into the top ten. I
Speaker 1: could see him going after bow Nicks or Michael Pennix
Speaker 1: around ten to twelve, if they're available. Seattle doesn't have
Speaker 1: a lot of needs. They have a left tackle, they
Speaker 1: have multiple weapons, they have pass rushers, good corners, nice
Speaker 1: running backs, active linebackers. Could maybe use another safety. Maybe
Speaker 1: Seattle doesn't have needs. Quarterback is their need, and now
Speaker 1: a coach preferably offensive. Dan Quinn feels like somebody that
Speaker 1: Pete Carroll recommended, right. Pete and Dan are close, and
Speaker 1: Pete and Dan are both really, really good defensive minds.
Speaker 1: But I think this year when you watch Seattle, their
Speaker 1: defense slipped. Their offensive line was not as good as
Speaker 1: it should have been. And if I look at the
Speaker 1: Rams and I look at the Seahawks, this is a
Speaker 1: rebuilding year for the Rams. This was not a rebuilding
Speaker 1: year for the Seahawks. They were in the playoffs last
Speaker 1: year and had another great draft. Can't let the Rams
Speaker 1: beat you twice. Rams can't make it and you can't
Speaker 1: miss can't be that way. You have the better roster.
Speaker 1: You had the momentum. So I think it's we just
Speaker 1: have to be honest. This division, the NFC West, is
Speaker 1: going to run through shanahan and McVeigh for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 1: And if brock Perty's as good as I think he is,
Speaker 1: and I think he's good, and Matt Stafford's really good,
Speaker 1: and then Kyler Murray's terrific, Seattle's got upgrade at quarterback.
Speaker 1: Forget the NFC, forget the NFL, the division, McVeigh, Shanahan,
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray, Seattle has to upgrade at the most important position.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe Pete didn't want to, but I would. I
Speaker 1: would put a Gino Smith draft pick pack, maybe another player,
Speaker 1: and I'd move up five or six spots, seven or eight,
Speaker 1: nine or ten spots and go get a quarterback. That's
Speaker 1: what I would do. So I think Pete is going
Speaker 1: to coach again. I think Pete wants to coach again.
Speaker 1: I think you know, he's not an assistant, he's not
Speaker 1: an advisor. That's not who he is. But who knows.
Speaker 1: Bob Stoops retired at Oklahoma early. I didn't understand it.
Speaker 1: Chris Peterson wanted out. But if you listen to Pete
Speaker 1: Carroll today, he sounds like he wants to coach. I
Speaker 1: mean he was selling at the podium. He was selling
Speaker 1: my Energy's great, my optimism. Let's go ride some waves.
Speaker 1: I can't wait. I'm very excited. That press conference was
Speaker 1: not only classy by Pete, but he was sending messages
Speaker 1: to all the gms and maybe all the athletic directors
Speaker 1: in college. He was sending messages. You go to the podium.
Speaker 1: Tom Brady used to do a radio hit every Monday
Speaker 1: in Boston radio. Was he doing it because he needed
Speaker 1: the money. He would send the message for the week, right,
Speaker 1: what's the message for the week for the organization? So
Speaker 1: Pete smart, he steps to the podium and he wanted
Speaker 1: to sell energy. I'm not done, I feel great, I'm
Speaker 1: not tired. I got a bright future. I'm a young
Speaker 1: seventy two year old guy. That was the messaging, and
Speaker 1: I think Pete deserves interviews. If I was the Chargers,
Speaker 1: I would hire Harbaugh first, Rabel second, but I'd interview Pete.
Speaker 1: I don't want another assistant, but I'd interview Pete. Hell Michigan,
Speaker 1: Pete want to coach college again? I mean Lincoln Riley
Speaker 1: in two years once out. I mean, it's a seventy
Speaker 1: two year old today, is not a seventy two year
Speaker 1: old twenty five years ago. Pete exercises, Pete moves, Pete
Speaker 1: eats better. You know, it's just a different world. It's
Speaker 1: a different world. I just turned sixty years old. I
Speaker 1: wait the same weight I waited in high school, in college,
Speaker 1: lower body fat. I work out more, I eat much better.
Speaker 1: You know. I don't recover as quickly from a cocktail,
Speaker 1: but I feel pretty good. There you go, instant reaction.
Speaker 1: I'd go offense. Shane Wall, Ben Johnson and Seattle. That's
Speaker 1: not a rebuild roster. They're ready to win a lot
Speaker 1: of games now. Pete Carroll, good luck, You've earned it.
Speaker 1: Speaking of seventy two year old Nick Saban, Alabama head
Speaker 1: coach is officially retiring. It just happened. A little bit surprised.
Speaker 1: Although years ago Nick Saban and I think he told
Speaker 1: his agent, Jimmy Sexton, he said, I don't want to
Speaker 1: be Joe Paterno, Bobby Bowden. I don't want people dragging
Speaker 1: me out of here. I'm gonna know. I am going
Speaker 1: to know when it's time, And I think he knows
Speaker 1: it's time. I'll also tell you this. I have a
Speaker 1: theory on why he's retiring now. And I think you're
Speaker 1: going to find that he has quietly and privately negotiated
Speaker 1: a huge TV contract with somebody, and you'll know that
Speaker 1: very quickly. You will know that very quickly. That's my guess.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to tell you why, but there could
Speaker 1: be a network that feels they have a need for
Speaker 1: a big, important personality, and I think he's going to
Speaker 1: go to TV route and make lots and lots of
Speaker 1: money sign a very very big contract. So Nick is
Speaker 1: the greatest college football coach of all time. One of
Speaker 1: the things I appreciate about Nick Saban is his ability
Speaker 1: to adapt. Unlike a lot of defensive coaches. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was Doug nuss Meyer and Jim mcelwaine and Lane
Speaker 1: Kiffin and Sark and Bill O'Brien. He had to run
Speaker 1: through offensive coach after offensive coach and he didn't miss
Speaker 1: I mean, he really hit a lot of hires out
Speaker 1: of the park. And most defensive coaches they miss on
Speaker 1: those coordinators regularly. So Nick nailed it. Nick was willing
Speaker 1: to evolve. I think Lane Kiffin deserves credit for that
Speaker 1: brought him in, and you know it would confront Nick
Speaker 1: like Nick, the world's changing, I can score on your
Speaker 1: defensive practice. I also think college football is a young
Speaker 1: man's game. Jay Wright, Skryzhevsky, williams Now, Nick Saban. The
Speaker 1: transfer portal is a pain in the butt. It's year
Speaker 1: round recruiting. It's really ruined it for coaches of stature
Speaker 1: and age. It's just not any fun. You don't have
Speaker 1: a life. You get maybe two weeks off a year.
Speaker 1: NFL coaches get like five to six weeks off a year.
Speaker 1: So the college game is a young man's game. It's
Speaker 1: a Laane Kiffen world. It's a Sark world, Kaylin de
Speaker 1: Boor world. You get into the sixties and seventies, it's exhausting.
Speaker 1: And the transfer portal the nil. And I think probably
Speaker 1: a TV network walked up to Nick Saban and said,
Speaker 1: we're gonna pay it ten million bucks a year. Get
Speaker 1: over here, that's my guess, and you'll hear about it
Speaker 1: fairly soon. I think Nick will be great on TV.
Speaker 1: But I think he's the greatest college football coach of
Speaker 1: all time. His ability to adapt, his ability to dominate
Speaker 1: the toughest conference, in the SEC. BAMA will be fine
Speaker 1: personnel wise, but there'll be no more nixt Bear, Bryant,
Speaker 1: Nick Saban. There's a lot of average coaches in between,
Speaker 1: and it's a very very tough job. You know. Whoever's
Speaker 1: going to line up, they'll there'll be a lot of
Speaker 1: people lining up. A lot of people think Dabbos Sweeny
Speaker 1: at Clemson is going to take the job. Dabbo would
Speaker 1: be my choice if he was willing to leave Clemson.
Speaker 1: Not sure he would terrific coach. It's not a rebuild,
Speaker 1: but I do think the transfer portal and the offer
Speaker 1: from a TV network are the deciding factors. You just
Speaker 1: don't know about the offer yet from the TV network.
Speaker 1: I can guarantee you this is not just Nick just
Speaker 1: didn't wake up and have a side of eggs and
Speaker 1: a piece of burnt toast this morning and said, you know,
Speaker 1: I just gonna see I just gotta retire. Nick's been thinking.
Speaker 1: Nick plans everything, Nick strategizes everything. Nick Saban been thinking
Speaker 1: about this for a while. And he sees young Lane Kiffen,
Speaker 1: and here comes Sark, and here comes Brent Venables, and he,
Speaker 1: you know, he starts looking around this conference and some
Speaker 1: of these young guys and Lane Kiffen, and He's like,
Speaker 1: come on, man, I mean, in my seventies, do I
Speaker 1: want to be on the road recruiting constantly all this
Speaker 1: transfer portal nonsense where I have to recruit my own
Speaker 1: kids as much as high school kids. No thanks, I'm out.
Speaker 1: So congrats to Nick Sabe, the greatest college football coach
Speaker 1: of all time. John Middlecoff, former NFL scout with the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia Eagles. He does the Three and Out podcast, And
Speaker 1: we just watched Michigan throttle Washington thirty four to thirteen.
Speaker 1: I was pulling, you know, for Washington for reasons because
Speaker 1: John had a lot of money on it and I
Speaker 1: am from the Pacific Northwest. But I had said with
Speaker 1: John and on FS one and Fox Sports Radio, I
Speaker 1: thought Michigan really matched up with Washington. Well, I thought
Speaker 1: their secondary would clamp down, they'd get a pass rush.
Speaker 1: You saw it tonight. Recruiting does matter, and Michigan recruits
Speaker 1: at the higher level.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: One of the limitations for Washington has always been they
Speaker 1: are geographically jammed up in the corner. Washington, Oregon, Idaho
Speaker 1: do not have a lot of Division IE players. They
Speaker 1: have to convince kids to come up to the rainy weather.
Speaker 1: Michigan more centrally located, you know, and sometimes it's a
Speaker 1: little bit easier in the region they're into recruit I mean,
Speaker 1: Oregon and Washington play at a very high level and
Speaker 1: sort of overcome some recruiting disadvantages. Nil certainly helps Oregon
Speaker 1: because of Phil Knight and his backing. But my takeaway
Speaker 1: to start this game was that listen, Michigan felt they
Speaker 1: could Obviously they're gonna pound them a little bit on
Speaker 1: the run. Washington was aggressive defensively got burned, but I
Speaker 1: think in the end, Washington averaged four yards of play
Speaker 1: Michigan average seven point eight, and they just negated Washington's firepower.
Speaker 1: Washington has thrown the ball on everybody for two years,
Speaker 1: and Michigan's corners and pass rush just took it away.
Speaker 1: And then you had a very limited Michael Pennix who
Speaker 1: doesn't move particularly well, and a run game that was
Speaker 1: never great all season. I just I kind of felt
Speaker 1: like I knew who was going to win this thing.
Speaker 1: About eight minutes into it. I had like a feeling like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're just gonna lean on Washington. That was my takeaway.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it was seventeen to ten right time,
Speaker 3: but it felt more like thirty to three. I mean
Speaker 3: it was that Washington was very, very lucky, which you
Speaker 3: felt like had some momentum because they were going and
Speaker 3: a half, they were getting the ball and then he
Speaker 3: immediately comes out and throws an interception. But in that
Speaker 3: third quarter, I mean, Michigan couldn't get anything going on offense.
Speaker 3: They only gave him three points. So it was it
Speaker 3: was twenty to ten going into the fourth quarter. But
Speaker 3: you know, Michigan is about to set the record many
Speaker 3: people believe for players drafted, and it's not super high
Speaker 3: in talent. It's fifteen to seventeen guys they're gonna get drafted.
Speaker 3: You know, a lot of guys third, fourth, fifth round.
Speaker 3: And it showed the night right Washington's talent NFL wise
Speaker 3: is all the skill guys on offense, the receivers, a dudesay,
Speaker 3: the other two guys, and the quarterback. Well, if I
Speaker 3: tell you the quarterback, I would say has one of
Speaker 3: the worst games you've ever seen him play. That mattered,
Speaker 3: you know, not some of the Stanford of the random
Speaker 3: games against Oregon, against the big time teams they've played
Speaker 3: Texas he had, I'd give him like a C minus
Speaker 3: tonight they have no chance. And then the other thing
Speaker 3: that really stood out is Washington's offensive line, you know,
Speaker 3: won the Joe War Award, was the best they got worked.
Speaker 3: I mean, that guard center combination was getting shoved around.
Speaker 3: The physicality you saw. Harba's team look like the good
Speaker 3: NFL teams. They're just good at every position. They tackle well.
Speaker 3: And to me that the player of the game is
Speaker 3: Harbaugh's defensive coordinator Jesse Minner, which I'm sure would go
Speaker 3: with him. He's a raven guy to the NFL. What
Speaker 3: a performance by him, I mean, shutting down one of
Speaker 3: the more explosive offenses we've seen in recent memory.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, Pennis had an off game.
Speaker 1: I kind of look at it like it's it's not
Speaker 1: a random off game. He got pressure, not a lot
Speaker 1: of space to move, and people weren't open, and so
Speaker 1: he was off because he was pressured. He was off
Speaker 1: because they're just there'sn't one lot, weren't a lot of openings.
Speaker 1: I mean, you and I both thought Washington matched up
Speaker 1: really well with Texas. I thought it was like that
Speaker 1: that matches up Texas week in the secondary. Michigan's got
Speaker 1: NFL guys in the secondary, so everywhere you know, Pennix
Speaker 1: was just throwing that ball. It was sort of jump
Speaker 1: ball situations. And I mean, Michael Penox is still going
Speaker 1: to get drafted very high. But you can see the
Speaker 1: concerns about him. He is sort of a statuesque thrower.
Speaker 1: He kind of lets it fly. Say he doesn't like
Speaker 1: to get hit. You saw a couple of times when
Speaker 1: he had pressure. He didn't want to get popped. And
Speaker 1: in the NFL, if you go to a bad team,
Speaker 1: you're gonna get popped. So you watch a Josh Allen
Speaker 1: on Sunday or Lamar and they can throw, they can pass.
Speaker 1: Michael's going to sit in the pocket in the NFL
Speaker 1: like Tua, and he's gonna throw the football. Think he's
Speaker 1: a bigger, stronger to it, throws it up the sideline
Speaker 1: better than Tua. But that's sort of his comp He's
Speaker 1: kind of a statuesque thrower when he has time to throw.
Speaker 1: Does it hurt his draft stock? Certainly didn't help it.
Speaker 1: You're a former scout, I mean, you know people are
Speaker 1: saying he'll drop out of the first round. I just
Speaker 1: I think there's so much desperation for a cornerback. He
Speaker 1: may go down to twenty twenty five, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: feel like he go mid second, does it.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: I mean maybe I'm a little biased, you know, on
Speaker 3: the West Coast and rooting for him, And maybe I
Speaker 3: got a little over excited for the Texas game because
Speaker 3: I like to ask my friends that are on teams
Speaker 3: that don't need a quarterback, so when they go into
Speaker 3: these schools, they have no agenda in evaluating the guy.
Speaker 3: And a couple of guys that are you know, scouting
Speaker 3: directors had second round grades on the guy. And you know,
Speaker 3: a lot of people were pushing back against this top
Speaker 3: ten talk after the Texas game because they go, he's
Speaker 3: an older player, he's been banged up. Look at tonight
Speaker 3: it looked a lot like some of those Oregon games
Speaker 3: where he's getting peppered and you go, god, is he
Speaker 3: gonna be able to get up? Well, what happens when
Speaker 3: that's TJ. Watt right or Fletcher Cox or Aaron Donald,
Speaker 3: those guys leaning on them all game long. So I
Speaker 3: understand the concerns. I'm bullish on him. I like him.
Speaker 3: Tonight is rough because the way you evaluate a player
Speaker 3: is against the best competition he plays right, So Oregon
Speaker 3: Texas defensively is not right. So tonight would be the
Speaker 3: game that if you were feeling pretty good about your
Speaker 3: second round grade, which which I understand. Like, I understand
Speaker 3: the concerns, but I don't think you gotta be careful
Speaker 3: in scouting about overreacting to a performance like tonight because
Speaker 3: to me, he was really amped up early, he could
Speaker 3: never get into a rhythm, and he was bad. I mean,
Speaker 3: guys have bad games, right, So I wouldn't write the
Speaker 3: guy off. But tonight is definitely going to be of
Speaker 3: concern in these draft meetings for these teams. Like you said,
Speaker 3: I would be like, I don't see him falling out
Speaker 3: of the first round. All the character stuff, the medical
Speaker 3: is going to be a concern, and when he goes
Speaker 3: to the combine, if anything red flags with the knees,
Speaker 3: you know, just to wear and tear on the body.
Speaker 3: Because you draft a guy in the first round, it
Speaker 3: is about the second contract, like can the guy be
Speaker 3: an eight to nine year player? Do we feel comfortable
Speaker 3: about giving the guy a second contract? And I do
Speaker 3: think tonight brought up some fair questions. I still like
Speaker 3: the player. But tonight was a rough performance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it was. As I was watching the game,
Speaker 1: I said, you have two contrasting styles. A team that
Speaker 1: would prefer to throw, a team that would prefer to run,
Speaker 1: a West Coast Pac twelve team, a big ten team.
Speaker 1: Michigan made it look like a Big ten game. Michigan
Speaker 1: made that game look like they wanted to make it
Speaker 1: look McCarthy didn't have to throw much, couple of big
Speaker 1: throws to the tight end, take a lead, physically push
Speaker 1: Washington around. As Washington, you know, now heads into the conference.
Speaker 1: Michigan's like, Okay, this is what we do. This is
Speaker 1: sort of what the kind of brand of football. I mean,
Speaker 1: Michigan doesn't have an elite receiver, their tight ends one
Speaker 1: of their more consistent pass catchers. So I thought Michigan
Speaker 1: made it look like a big ten game. And you know,
Speaker 1: the other thing that jumped out to me and Michigan,
Speaker 1: for the record, is a very good tackling team. You
Speaker 1: pointed that out. You know, sometimes you have to watch
Speaker 1: a moment. You know, you can speculate, and then you
Speaker 1: watch a moment and I was like, I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think Harball's going to come back to Michigan.
Speaker 1: As I watched that game and I watched the way
Speaker 1: Michigan played, I'm like, yeah, this would be the perfect
Speaker 1: time to leave. Like it was. I sat there and
Speaker 1: I'm like, he beat Washington, Alabama, Ohio State, Iowa, Penn
Speaker 1: State in a row. It's your last five games at Michigan.
Speaker 1: And you see his brother and you see the family,
Speaker 1: and I thought he's going to take his DC. All
Speaker 1: these kids are leaving. And as I watched it, it's weird,
Speaker 1: but it felt like his last game at Michigan. Does
Speaker 1: that sound crazy?
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's gone. I mean I think he's definitely gone.
Speaker 3: And the one thing Jim Harbaugh has always done and
Speaker 3: was unfold displayed tonight is his coaching staffs are so good.
Speaker 3: I remember going to a nine of practice when he
Speaker 3: was there and it was Vic Fangio's defensive coordinator who
Speaker 3: was with him at Stanford. Feels like he has a
Speaker 3: young superstar in this Jesse Minner guy that he got
Speaker 3: from his brother. Previously he had McDonald that is now
Speaker 3: his brother's defensive coordinator. The hardbass skills of accumulating excellent
Speaker 3: assistance is an elite skill because Jim is a CEO
Speaker 3: head coach. He's not calling the blaze. He's a motivator,
Speaker 3: he's a program guy. That team felt like an NFL
Speaker 3: team today, the way they tackle, their physicality, their relentlessness,
Speaker 3: and listen, Washington's like a really good college team that
Speaker 3: felt like, we're good at everywhere. Are really our only
Speaker 3: flaws our quarterback? How much can we rely on him?
Speaker 3: But he's clearly has NFL potential. We can talk about
Speaker 3: him from an NFL standpoint, But you know, Harbaugh's built
Speaker 3: teams like this when he's been at his best, where
Speaker 3: he over he's a heavyweight fighter and he comes in.
Speaker 3: I mean when they have almost one hundred and eighty
Speaker 3: yards rushing in the first quarter, they hit him like
Speaker 3: Mike Tyson right in the face and it felt like
Speaker 3: it really wobbled Washington and they were never the same
Speaker 3: after that. They were just holding on by a thread. Yeah,
Speaker 3: because Harbas's teams typically, unless they're playing crappy opponents, aren't
Speaker 3: gonna score sixty points, You're always going to be in
Speaker 3: the game. Especially they were bad on third down, but
Speaker 3: the game was never close.
Speaker 1: All right, let's let's move to Jim Harbaughs. So one
Speaker 1: of the things I wrote this, I think in my
Speaker 1: first book two things make smart man stupid, beautiful women
Speaker 1: and sports, And I always think so. I grew up
Speaker 1: in the Pacific Northwest, where I was a Husky fan
Speaker 1: as a kid, but we didn't have teams that won
Speaker 1: a lot of championships. And ever since I was a kid,
Speaker 1: I've always been wanted to be a sportscaster. So I
Speaker 1: was never a fan, a true fan as a kid.
Speaker 1: You know, people know I like the Huskies or USC
Speaker 1: but I'm not really a true fan. I love creating content.
Speaker 1: Anybody that knows me, you know me, Jimmy Horowitz, Charlie Dixon.
Speaker 1: I love to create content. That's that's my love of
Speaker 1: my life, beyond my kids and family. I love to
Speaker 1: create seven minute rants, eight minute rants, and I love
Speaker 1: the audience to rip them, enjoy them whatever.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 1: And this Jim Harbaugh stuff is why I, as a
Speaker 1: moderately bright guy, have a great career. Is that Jim
Speaker 1: Harbaugh has literally won everywhere. He got to a Super
Speaker 1: Bowl Kaepernick, he won an academically rigid Stanford like twelve games.
Speaker 1: He won ten games at Michigan, the first year with
Speaker 1: Brady Huak's players in the Big Ten, and for years
Speaker 1: people just kept pushing back. He's not good. And I
Speaker 1: tell people it's called Google. It's a search engine. You
Speaker 1: can look at His brother's brilliant. His dad won a championship.
Speaker 1: His brother's brilliant. He's won everywhere. And it was the
Speaker 1: reluctance for people because Jim makes people. He's a disruptor, uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: He's uber to taxi. He just pisses people off. He's new,
Speaker 1: We've done it this way, he does it that way.
Speaker 1: The Jim Schwartz pat in the back. He's hard. He
Speaker 1: pissed Pete Carroll off. And the idea that Jim harbaught
Speaker 1: needed the Natty to be viewed as a great coach.
Speaker 1: And I'm like Saban bombed in the NFL, Spurrier bombed.
Speaker 1: Like there's five four or five guys ever, Jimmy Johnson,
Speaker 1: Pete Carroll, Jim Harbaugh one with both, it's really hard.
Speaker 1: I mean Belichick, he wouldn't deal with donors, he wouldn't recruit.
Speaker 1: He's shown no ability to understand offense that in our business,
Speaker 1: that if we allow the fans to be the jury
Speaker 1: and then you know, somebody can be the DA somebody
Speaker 1: can be the prosecuting attorney, and you and I are
Speaker 1: just the judge, and you remove emotion from most of
Speaker 1: the arguments. It is rather bizarre that how often greatness
Speaker 1: is obvious and people, because their agendas or their connections
Speaker 1: to other schools, just won't subscribe to Yeah, Jim Harbaugh's
Speaker 1: one everywhere Immediately. I'm shocked by all the people that
Speaker 1: are like, yeah, that needed this to prove it.
Speaker 4: They needed it to prove it.
Speaker 5: Now listen, I will admit you know, it's not like
Speaker 5: we don't all have our own wits. I just mentioned
Speaker 5: the Yokid, so like it's not like anybody bats a
Speaker 5: thousand on this stuff. But no, no, no, I'm not saying that,
Speaker 5: by the way, was an ascending player who's a second
Speaker 5: rounder and and it just there was no precedent for it,
Speaker 5: which is part of what makes him so special when
Speaker 5: you're unprecedented. But and also to add to your point,
Speaker 5: and I might be totally misremembering, but like a decade ago,
Speaker 5: didn't you have a really weird like thing with Harball?
Speaker 4: Like I don't I love that?
Speaker 5: Was it?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 5: And but you know, but you like there was an
Speaker 5: interview or whatever where it seemed like he was giving
Speaker 5: you the hard time.
Speaker 4: I don't remember the details of him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so I didn't interview. It was terribly clunky.
Speaker 1: I could have easily turned on him.
Speaker 5: But the reason, that's okay, So that's what I was
Speaker 5: That's why I was going to bring it up was
Speaker 5: I thought somewhere in my brain I thought that existed,
Speaker 5: but I couldn't quite remember it. You, nothing would have
Speaker 5: been easier than to be, like, everybody thinks this guy's
Speaker 5: a dope.
Speaker 4: He kind of was a dick to me when I
Speaker 4: talked to him.
Speaker 5: And it's always the safer bet to say someone sucks
Speaker 5: because it's hard to win. Yeah, because you're gonna get
Speaker 5: to be right so much more often then you're gonna
Speaker 5: get Then you're gonna ever be wrong because there's only
Speaker 5: one winner at the end of the day.
Speaker 4: And if you can be like, well, I can't win
Speaker 4: the big game. I mean, what do you want.
Speaker 5: Me to tell you, Like I talked to the guys,
Speaker 5: it sucks. And I watch ten percent as much college
Speaker 5: football as you, but I watch the biggest games, the
Speaker 5: biggest programs, and obviously I am very aware of what's
Speaker 5: going on.
Speaker 4: And it was like six years ago, I'm like.
Speaker 5: Wasn't Hardball's team with way less talent like a bad spot.
Speaker 4: Away from beating Ohio State? Like wasn't it wasn't? Hasn't
Speaker 4: so much of this narrative of oh can't beat the
Speaker 4: best teams?
Speaker 5: Like aren't we basing that partially on a spot we
Speaker 5: all agree was the wrong spot? In a year, he
Speaker 5: would have either been undefeated or in the title game.
Speaker 5: I don't remember all the details, but there is there's
Speaker 5: just so much data. I'll give you the and a
Speaker 5: different contemporary example, it should not have taken Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 5: for people to realize Andy Reid pretty fucking smart.
Speaker 1: Yeah you know what?
Speaker 5: And by the way, he would have probably never won
Speaker 5: a super Bowl. Well you know what I mean, if
Speaker 5: it would have just been Alex Smith to the next guy,
Speaker 5: because winning super Bowls are hard. But when every player,
Speaker 5: every quarterback that you have, has their best seasons under
Speaker 5: this and then it's like, oh, like it's so all
Speaker 5: the and I think, by the way, kind of a
Speaker 5: future take, I can see some of the media turning
Speaker 5: on is too strong, but starting to do this.
Speaker 4: Topic, how good is Kyle Shanahan really if.
Speaker 5: They don't make it, because it's like, oh, these great
Speaker 5: regular seasons, but where's the jewelry, like if they don't
Speaker 5: win the super Bowl, as opposed to being like, well,
Speaker 5: I don't know, he's taking quarterbacks that the moment they
Speaker 5: leave him are backups or benched or whatever. And win
Speaker 5: twelve games, thirteen games, one playoff games probably pretty good.
Speaker 4: And so I do think there is that there is
Speaker 4: a a level of.
Speaker 5: Folks that I think won't go with will only go
Speaker 5: with what they truly believe and see, yeah, up until
Speaker 5: it's like, huh, this is not in the mainstream enough anymore,
Speaker 5: I'll disagree with everybody else and so and I think
Speaker 5: that's why not to bring up the Niners again. I
Speaker 5: think that's why people have gotten so frustrated with me
Speaker 5: on brock Purty.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Is it's because so many of the other skeptics laid
Speaker 5: down their swords. And I don't think they were convinced.
Speaker 5: I just think they got sick of getting yelled at.
Speaker 5: And what I think folks don't know is in order
Speaker 5: to yell at me, you better see me in person,
Speaker 5: because I'm not seeing.
Speaker 4: Any of it. I'm not reading any of it.
Speaker 5: Like, the only people who get to yell at me
Speaker 5: have like are Bruceard Wilde's you and.
Speaker 4: People I know, so like, I don't really it doesn't
Speaker 4: impact me.
Speaker 5: And so the Harball thing is fascinating, and I do
Speaker 5: wonder how much of it is. They didn't like it.
Speaker 5: They just thought the guy was weird and a jerk
Speaker 5: or whatever. And I don't want to describe that to him.
Speaker 5: I don't know him, but it seemed like a lot
Speaker 5: of it is like I don't like this guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I had four you know, I rely a lot
Speaker 1: because I'm older, so I know a lot of coaches
Speaker 1: and executives. I go to lunch with him, I have
Speaker 1: dinner with them. So I know four different coaches who
Speaker 1: have been on Harbass staff and they all said the
Speaker 1: same thing. Guy is different. He's the most football obsessed
Speaker 1: guy ever. He's just he's just it's insane. So a
Speaker 1: lot of times I have access you do that. Fans
Speaker 1: don't write that. They don't sure I don't have these.
Speaker 1: I mean I go to dinner probably twice a year
Speaker 1: with Manginie. We talk about shit that I'm not putting
Speaker 1: on the air. Jed Fish is a good friend of mine.
Speaker 1: You know, different guys I've dealt with, so I do
Speaker 1: have some you know, I can call.
Speaker 4: It part of the job. Yeah, right, this is what
Speaker 4: we do.
Speaker 1: If you're a mortgage broker listening to me, you have
Speaker 1: access to stuff that I don't have. So but I
Speaker 1: just found the Harbaugh stuff. It's like, guys, Okay, four times,
Speaker 1: including the NFL first year, he took the Niners over.
Speaker 4: They were excellent.
Speaker 1: And it's like if a lot of people get jobs
Speaker 1: and they don't last. But if you get four different jobs,
Speaker 1: five different jobs, you take crap and you make it
Speaker 1: good immediately, and you're successful in all of them. I
Speaker 1: don't need championships now.
Speaker 4: And where was he before Stanford? I don't even remember.
Speaker 4: So he was at San Diego.
Speaker 1: It was a small university.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, and he succeeded there, and he succeeded everywhere.
Speaker 1: They had a quarterback who was good. He made him
Speaker 1: really really good. Then he went to Stanford. Stanford was
Speaker 1: the worst program in the country with high academic and
Speaker 1: they beat as a.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I remember that vividly. I mean I
Speaker 5: remember it, and in my opinion, set the table and
Speaker 5: This is the other thing that happens sometimes to guys.
Speaker 4: Are you pals with Chris Peterson?
Speaker 5: Yes, like yeah, okay, So I feel like sometimes guys
Speaker 5: become victims of their own success, where they make a
Speaker 5: place so relevant or good that it stays that after
Speaker 5: they leave, and then to some folks it's not as
Speaker 5: wildly impressive of what they did when they got there.
Speaker 5: So Chris Peterson like turned Boise State into such a
Speaker 5: power that after he leaves, it's still relevant and it's
Speaker 5: like no, no, no, that was created by him. Similar
Speaker 5: thing happened with Harball with Stanford, like Harball can leave,
Speaker 5: they have Andrew Luck and David Shaw and they're really
Speaker 5: good still, and it's like, oh, yeah, Stanford is always
Speaker 5: pretty good. It's like, no, it was not Terry that is.
Speaker 5: I mean, I understand there were times when it was,
Speaker 5: and they were involved in famous games obviously, but when
Speaker 5: he took it over, it was terrible and made it
Speaker 5: great and the Niners were.
Speaker 4: In the wilderness and it.
Speaker 5: Instantly turned around. It instantly turned around for them, Which is,
Speaker 5: if you were advising him, what job would you take
Speaker 5: if he had his pick of all the NFL openings?
Speaker 1: What job would you tell him, I would say, Jim,
Speaker 1: you recruited Drake May. Do you think he's better than
Speaker 1: Justin Herbert? And if the answer is yes, you take
Speaker 1: the Washington job because Herbert for the next rest of
Speaker 1: his career is expensive. If you believe that Drake May
Speaker 1: is better than Justin Herbert, you take the Washington job.
Speaker 1: Your brother coaches Baltimore, you take Washington. Your mom and
Speaker 1: dad can move between the two of you. Cap space.
Speaker 1: Good roster Drake May now John. If you don't think
Speaker 1: it is, then just go with the best quarterback. I
Speaker 1: mean the answer in the NFL is almost always go
Speaker 1: where the best quarterback is, or draft the best quarterback.
Speaker 1: Chicago draft Caleb Williams. It'll just work out, He'll it'll
Speaker 1: work out, of course, right, So the Chargers is the
Speaker 1: best job unless and wherever Harbaugh goes. What's really an
Speaker 1: advantage is like Pete Carroll or Jimmy Johnson, when they're
Speaker 1: in college and they come to pro, you get about
Speaker 1: a three year window where you know all the college players,
Speaker 1: you recruited all of them.
Speaker 4: Oh, that's a huge edge.
Speaker 1: So the rebuild will be much easier for you. Now,
Speaker 1: the Chargers is not a rebuild, they have cap space
Speaker 1: cap issues. Washington's not a total rebuild, but a semi
Speaker 1: rebuild with tons of cap space. So Harbaugh can walk
Speaker 1: in and go, yeah, I'm gonna like Jimmy and Pete,
Speaker 1: the rebuild is much easier for me, I know all.
Speaker 1: And by the way, we will trade off some players
Speaker 1: get draft picks. I'll probably take four of my mission
Speaker 1: guys who I know can play, and I'll avoid the
Speaker 1: ones that I know that I know can't. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: you go look at Pete Carroll's first three or four
Speaker 1: drafts out of USC. I mean it was just fifth round,
Speaker 1: sixth round. I mean he was nailing people. Jimmy Johnson
Speaker 1: walks into the league. He is just fish in a barrel.
Speaker 1: So I think Washington's very interesting, no cap issues, marginal rebuild.
Speaker 1: You look around that division and you're like Jalen Hurts,
Speaker 1: Dak Daniel Jones off another winning week three and two,
Speaker 1: blazing five for the record thirteen to the last fifteen
Speaker 1: weeks or is it fourteen of sixteen. I was five
Speaker 1: hundred or better sixty three percent after my disastrous opening
Speaker 1: two weeks, so we had a very good season of
Speaker 1: blazing five Sharper Square, Chad Milman CEO Action Network. All
Speaker 1: odds provided by DraftKings. You know, the game that I
Speaker 1: talked myself, you and McIntyre talked me out of was
Speaker 1: the Texans, and so you know the numbers. It did
Speaker 1: feel like a Colt's play. But one of the reasons
Speaker 1: I think that the Consumers fans had one of their
Speaker 1: best years ever because increasingly over the last two years
Speaker 1: it has gotten so quarterback centric. Last year, seven of
Speaker 1: seven playoff teams in the NFC had offensive coaches. This year,
Speaker 1: it's eleven of fourteen was twelve of fourteen for most
Speaker 1: of the season.
Speaker 4: And I think c J.
Speaker 1: Stroud listening watching those who either cover him or watch
Speaker 1: him or judge his film, I think we're looking at
Speaker 1: a deep ball thrower that is one of the best
Speaker 1: in the league accuracy seeing the field. So I know
Speaker 1: the Browns have a better roster, But Joe Flacco's story
Speaker 1: has actually been better than his quarterbacking. His passer rating
Speaker 1: has been ninety. The story's great, his quarterback play has
Speaker 1: been okay. I would take c J. Stroud at home
Speaker 1: plus two and a half. Don't think they have the roster.
Speaker 1: I know rookie quarterbacks don't do all in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: But I think we're looking at a special player. Sharper Square.
Speaker 2: Yeah. The way you're describing it is similar to how
Speaker 2: wise guys have been describing CJ. Stroud is that he's
Speaker 2: neo from the matrix, right. There's something about him that
Speaker 2: is unicorn esque, and he defies all the expectations. He
Speaker 2: breaks all the models, he changes the rules for what
Speaker 2: we expect. We shouldn't want to bet on a rookie
Speaker 2: coach with a rookie quarterback against the best defense in
Speaker 2: the NFL in the playoffs, and yet that's what we
Speaker 2: want to do. And if you break this game down
Speaker 2: a little bit further, the Texans were six and three
Speaker 2: at home this year, six and two playing with CJ. Stroud.
Speaker 2: One of those games he missed. It happened to be
Speaker 2: the game in which Joe Flacco and Amari Cooper had
Speaker 2: a career day against the Texans in Houston. When he
Speaker 2: was at home, c J. Stroud through for twenty five
Speaker 2: hundred yards. He threw four seven yard no nine yards
Speaker 2: per completion, threw for seventeen touchdowns. When the Cleveland Browns
Speaker 2: defense was on the road, they gave up thirty points
Speaker 2: a game. They had eight road games nine holding games.
Speaker 2: In those eight road games, they gave up one hundred
Speaker 2: and twelve more points than they did in the nine
Speaker 2: games at home. Everything about their defense is different when
Speaker 2: they're on the road. So the wise guys are on
Speaker 2: the Texans a two and a half. This game actually
Speaker 2: opened to two, got that down to one and a half.
Speaker 2: The public came in and wrote it back up to three.
Speaker 2: Wise guys took the three. Now it's settle to two
Speaker 2: and a half. Personally, I'm waiting hoping that it gets
Speaker 2: back to three sometime before kickoff. A lot of lines
Speaker 2: have been moving aggressively before kickoff, so I'm hoping it
Speaker 2: gets back to three. But the wise guys are with you, Colin.
Speaker 1: Okay, we're not getting the best of the number, not
Speaker 1: even close. But the Chiefs minus four and a half,
Speaker 1: I think you know it's all bets are off zero degrees.
Speaker 1: I mean, Tua under like forty degrees has been a
Speaker 1: different quarterback. Tua in December and January is a five
Speaker 1: hundred quarterback. He's a Hawaiian kid who plays in Miami
Speaker 1: and then in Alabama. This is all just like taking
Speaker 1: a surfer and saying, here's anchorage, take your shirt off.
Speaker 1: Good luck. It's just different, So I think I think.
Speaker 1: I also think the Chiefs rested people at home. They're
Speaker 1: used to it. It's just the weather advantage. I would
Speaker 1: take the Chiefs to cover. The number was at like
Speaker 1: one and a half at one point two, so it's
Speaker 1: not the best of the number, but I think i'd
Speaker 1: still take Chiefs sharper square.
Speaker 2: Well, it's square at four and a half because of
Speaker 2: what you just said. Look, if it was Chiefs one
Speaker 2: and a half, it was Chiefs two to two and
Speaker 2: a half, even Chiefs three, then the wise guys were
Speaker 2: in the Chiefs. But as soon as it got to
Speaker 2: three and a half, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: it's a four and four and a half. You're just
Speaker 2: playing a bad number. And long term you might win
Speaker 2: this weekend, but long term it's not the right play,
Speaker 2: right and so there's a couple of things that have
Speaker 2: made this number run. I think one the weather people
Speaker 2: already believe the narrative that the Dolphins can't play in
Speaker 2: the cold, to the injuries that the Dolphins have suffered
Speaker 2: suffered defensively, I don't know how they're going to rush
Speaker 2: the passer. Are they only going to be able to
Speaker 2: rush the passer by blitzing? And if you blitz you
Speaker 2: don't win against Patrick Mahomes. But here's the flip side,
Speaker 2: and here's why the wise guys like the Dolphins in
Speaker 2: this spot one. These aren't the Chiefs of years past, right,
Speaker 2: They really don't have any reliable downfield targets. So the
Speaker 2: Dolphins can bracket Travis Kelce coming off the line at
Speaker 2: tight end, double team him, and then you basically put
Speaker 2: Jalen Ramsey on fore she Rice and you've taken away
Speaker 2: all the weapons that Patrick Mahomes has. And the flip
Speaker 2: side is the Chiefs defense is better than anything Patrick
Speaker 2: Mahomes has ever played with. The Dolphins. What's their mo?
Speaker 2: While they're a great downfield passing team, they're a really
Speaker 2: great running team. Don't forget Mike McDaniels. He's a running
Speaker 2: game coordinator, right Raheem Moster limited practice, I would expect
Speaker 2: him to play Devon h Chan brilliant out of the
Speaker 2: backfield as are running back this year. I think this
Speaker 2: will be a closer game than people think. So that's
Speaker 2: why the wise guys are taking the four and a half. Personally,
Speaker 2: I took the under forty four and a half. I'm
Speaker 2: not taking a side in this game.
Speaker 1: Okay, Packers plus seven and a half would be the
Speaker 1: side at Dallas. Dallas is going to score points. Joe
Speaker 1: Berry's defense has been a SIV most of the year,
Speaker 1: but Green Bay is a live dog. Four different receivers.
Speaker 1: I like good tight ends, Jordan Love playing well. If
Speaker 1: Dallas went seven and a half for a green Bay team,
Speaker 1: that I mean, if I told you this twenty seven,
Speaker 1: you'd be like, yeah, I can see that. I mean,
Speaker 1: Joe Berry's defense looks good. To get Chicago, it's not good.
Speaker 1: So I think it's a thirty three to twenty seven
Speaker 1: thirty three to twenty eight fun game to watch. Seven
Speaker 1: and a half feels way too heavy. I'll take green Bay.
Speaker 1: Sharper Square totally nailed it.
Speaker 2: Wise, guys are all over green Bay here. It's really
Speaker 2: interesting because this number probably should be power rated at six.
Speaker 2: The line should be about six for this game. You
Speaker 2: have two defenses that you say, Joe Berry and the
Speaker 2: Packers defense isn't very good. But look, the Cowboys defense
Speaker 2: gets more credit than it deserves. If pass rushes it's
Speaker 2: pass rushes middle of the road. You've got Micah Parsons, who's,
Speaker 2: you know, an All Pro, had more sacks this year
Speaker 2: than he's ever had. And you've got a defensive secondary
Speaker 2: with George Bland, who had more pick sixes than ever
Speaker 2: led the league in interceptions. Between those two spectrums, it's
Speaker 2: a lot of sizzle, not a lot of stak. And
Speaker 2: so this is a pass rush that is middling at best.
Speaker 2: So I wouldn't expect them to be a team that
Speaker 2: puts Jordan Love on his heels. And by the way,
Speaker 2: they play a lot of man. Jordan Love's passer rating
Speaker 2: is thirteen points higher against man that it is against zone.
Speaker 2: And what you're doing against Jordan Love right now, don't
Speaker 2: forget Dak Prescott lea the league in touchdown passes. Jordan
Speaker 2: Love was number two. Jordan Love since November has just
Speaker 2: been lights out elite as a quarterback. And I think
Speaker 2: it speaks to a coaching advantage for the Packers. Matt
Speaker 2: Laflor just a better coach than Mike McCarthy. We've seen it.
Speaker 2: Mike McCarthy is not great in late game situations. He
Speaker 2: is not great in managing the clock. Very good chance
Speaker 2: to pack. The Cowboys put themselves in a very bad
Speaker 2: position with bad decision making late in the game. One
Speaker 2: hundred percent agree with you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the easy one Rams plus the points
Speaker 1: three and a half at Lions was for at one point.
Speaker 1: I get a coaching advantage, a quarterback advantage, a health advantage,
Speaker 1: and I think people are forgetting just how good the
Speaker 1: Rams draft was. Their first three picks a left guard,
Speaker 1: a defensive tackle who should be the rookie of the
Speaker 1: year defensively, an outside linebacker who is relentless. And in
Speaker 1: the fifth round they got the steal of the entire
Speaker 1: draft in Puka Akua. Their special teams are dubious, so
Speaker 1: that's what scares me. I don't think they win the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. But it's a healthy team, coach, quarterback upgrade,
Speaker 1: and they have young players. We all know Puka, but
Speaker 1: they have nailed this draft. This is a team runs
Speaker 1: the ball, can throw it deep, can rush the passer.
Speaker 1: They're not a great team. You can They're a little
Speaker 1: like Detroit. They can score a lot. You can beat
Speaker 1: them over the top. But there's no way I'm giving
Speaker 1: over your field goal to the Rams. The Rams could
Speaker 1: easily win this game, Rams plus three and a half
Speaker 1: sharper square totally right.
Speaker 2: Another live dog. By the way, if you're putting together
Speaker 2: a money line parlay, you could do worse than putting
Speaker 2: together a parlay with the Rams and the Packers. Because
Speaker 2: I agree with you one hundred percent. The wise guys
Speaker 2: agree with you as well. They're going to be on
Speaker 2: the Rams at three and a half. They did bet
Speaker 2: it down from four almost immediately on Sunday night. It
Speaker 2: was the first game that the wise guys started pounding on.
Speaker 2: The wildcard games were announced, and you didn't even mention
Speaker 2: Colin Kyen Williams. This has been a different team since
Speaker 2: Kyron Williams came back from injury. Matthew Stafford. When's the
Speaker 2: last time like Matthew Stafford wasn't sort of the focal
Speaker 2: point of the offense, didn't throw for four thousand yards
Speaker 2: this year, played in every game, but this team was
Speaker 2: accelerating towards the playoffs when Kyrin Williams came back. Great
Speaker 2: coaching season by Sean McVay. I'm curious to me that
Speaker 2: you think he's that much better of a coach than
Speaker 2: Dan Campbell. I don't see the difference in this game
Speaker 2: being on the sidelines. To me, the real difference might
Speaker 2: end up being the fact that Sam Laporta isn't playing
Speaker 2: because he's a guy who this past season second most
Speaker 2: first down receptions on the Lions, finish the season with
Speaker 2: the most receptions ever for a tight end, tied for
Speaker 2: the most touchdown receptions. I think the books are discounting
Speaker 2: how important he is to the Lions and Jared Goff's comfort.
Speaker 1: This is a line game. If the Eagles are minus
Speaker 1: three and a half, I probably go Bucks, But I
Speaker 1: think it's a close twenty seven to twenty four game.
Speaker 1: I'll take the Eagles minus two and a half. Much
Speaker 1: better personnel, I mean Tampa down the stretch, maybe Carolina
Speaker 1: a couple times. I think, you know, it's a little
Speaker 1: like the Joe Flacco story. The story is better than
Speaker 1: the reality. I don't think TAM's very good. They don't
Speaker 1: have really a home field advantage. Half that stadium will
Speaker 1: be Eagles fans two and a half. The numbers, to me,
Speaker 1: Affilly number sharper square.
Speaker 2: It's totally sharp if you play in two and a half.
Speaker 2: If it's three and a half, the wise guys are
Speaker 2: going to play the Bucks. That's it. That's that's how
Speaker 2: it's going to go. So check your local list things,
Speaker 2: figure out what you want the number to be, and
Speaker 2: play the half point on either side. The greatest advantage
Speaker 2: that the Bucks really have could be in the middle
Speaker 2: of the field with Kate Atton. If you want to
Speaker 2: be taking a player prop you might want to think
Speaker 2: about playing his over reception yards keep it under say
Speaker 2: twenty three twenty four, if you can find that. But
Speaker 2: the other advantage has been Baker mayfield to Mike Evans
Speaker 2: this year. You know, Mike Evans tied for the league
Speaker 2: lead in touchdown receptions. But if it's going to be
Speaker 2: terrible weather and there's going to be weather all up
Speaker 2: and down throughout the country, then and it might be
Speaker 2: torrential rain there, that's going to limit Baker's ability to
Speaker 2: get the ball downfield to Mike Evans. So it's a really,
Speaker 2: really tricky game to bet. If you have to pick
Speaker 2: a side, you got to play the number.
Speaker 1: And finally, the Bills game could be moved. There's so
Speaker 1: much snow. Buffalo's a much better team. TJ watch not
Speaker 1: playing I Mike Tomlin getting ten in crappy weather. It's
Speaker 1: like that's a stayaway game for me. Talk me into
Speaker 1: the side the wise guys like.
Speaker 2: Well, look, the wise guys are sort of thinking the
Speaker 2: same thing as you. Right, don't forget this game opened
Speaker 2: at seven and a half, it lasted for about thirty seconds,
Speaker 2: and got that up immediately to nine and a half ten. I, unfortunately,
Speaker 2: am the sucker who looked at it on Tuesday and
Speaker 2: was like, yes, screw it, I don't care what the
Speaker 2: number is. The Bills are going to destroy this team.
Speaker 2: I betted at minus ten, and then forty eight hours later,
Speaker 2: I'm getting reports of the winter apocalypse coming into western
Speaker 2: New York, so that scares me quite a bit. But
Speaker 2: if not for the weather, I would tell you, yeah,
Speaker 2: you take the freaking Bills and you eat the number
Speaker 2: and you don't care. Because the Steelers forget about the
Speaker 2: fact that they're going to have a first playoff game
Speaker 2: quarterback in Mason Rudolph, which is never a good scenario. CJ.
Speaker 2: Stroud accepted, accepted. Without TJ. Watt, this is just a
Speaker 2: different team in terms of they're a bad team. So
Speaker 2: you cannot bet on the Steelers if they're not gonna
Speaker 2: have TJ. Watt. The problem is the weather, which is
Speaker 2: such a mystery and X factor right now. If you
Speaker 2: haven't bet it yet, don't.
Speaker 1: Bet it good, See anybody, anybody. The volume