Speaker 1: With the call of today's game on Fox Sports analysts
Speaker 1: Brock Heure joins us now and I think it's the
Speaker 1: first time we've had you on our air because we
Speaker 1: don't get a lot of Fox games and you're a
Speaker 1: lot of times on college games. Brock, it's good to
Speaker 1: see you. How are you. Yeah, I'm doing good, doing good.
Speaker 1: It's it's gonna be fun. This is probably one of
Speaker 1: the more college environments for US because the booth is
Speaker 1: way up high. It's not as big and company and
Speaker 1: cozy as a number of these newer stadiums. It'll be
Speaker 1: a blast watch. I think gonna be a very competitive
Speaker 1: game too. You are normally on college football, right, You've
Speaker 1: been with Fox for about a year or so, but
Speaker 1: they've moved you over to NFL coverage, and you know
Speaker 1: the adjustment of that for you. This has gotta be
Speaker 1: a little different prep. I would think week to week, well,
Speaker 1: you do the college games, and we were chatting off
Speaker 1: the air. This is much easier than the college game.
Speaker 1: The b y u Utah game with forty two Polynesian
Speaker 1: players and nine hundred vowels you don't necessarily find anymore
Speaker 1: in the NFL, So the games are three hours or less,
Speaker 1: right about ten possessions each sixty five plays. Frankly, you
Speaker 1: know most of the players, and it's a huge advantage
Speaker 1: for me a little a little bit like Matt Rule.
Speaker 1: I was talking to him about this last week in
Speaker 1: the Carolina game. I mean, I know most of these
Speaker 1: guys through college, right. I know how to pronounce Daria
Speaker 1: because I had him in Wisconsin two or three times,
Speaker 1: or Calebon chased on uh, you know. So it's familiar names,
Speaker 1: a lot less of them on my board, a lot
Speaker 1: easier to enunciate and pronunciate and um and the coaches,
Speaker 1: frankly to have been just terrific and transparent all the
Speaker 1: way along. So it's been a blast. Brockward with Us
Speaker 1: has the Call of the Game today on Fox Sports.
Speaker 1: One of those names that you know how to pronounce
Speaker 1: is Gardner Minshew, the second Jaguars quarterback. You've done him
Speaker 1: for a while. You're out in Seattle, of course on
Speaker 1: radio and then covering the college games on Saturday and
Speaker 1: now NFL on Sunday, so you've known Gardner for a
Speaker 1: little bit. This is his year to prove that he
Speaker 1: can be the guy in the NFL. But it's funny
Speaker 1: because he probably shouldn't be in this position to begin with.
Speaker 1: He shouldn't even have played last year. Now he has
Speaker 1: the opportunity. What have you made of his season so far? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I talked to him a bunch on Friday when we
Speaker 1: were out at the facility. First of all, he's two
Speaker 1: and oh when I've done his games, so he was
Speaker 1: excited about that and he knew that. Uh. Secondly, he's
Speaker 1: a rental kug. He's not really from Wazoo. When you're
Speaker 1: there seven months, you're not really People said, oh, you're
Speaker 1: a husky, he's a cougar. I'm like, he's He basically
Speaker 1: lived in a rental for seven months and made the
Speaker 1: most of it in his eleven one season. Is absolutely
Speaker 1: a character? Is you? And your audience knows having followed
Speaker 1: in the last couple of years. You know, I said
Speaker 1: to Gardener, I said, okay, when you're done playing and
Speaker 1: we we know you want to coach, are you going
Speaker 1: to install a air raid system? And you're said high
Speaker 1: school or college or do you like this pro style stuff?
Speaker 1: And he didn't even hesitate. He's like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: I'm going air raid. We're throwing the rock spread it everywhere,
Speaker 1: playing in space and simplifying. So to me, that's that's
Speaker 1: the conversation, is how much can he grow. We've seen
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers our crew twice this year, and frankly, it's unfair.
Speaker 1: What he's doing to defense is he's taken him apart
Speaker 1: pre snap, He's taken him apart at the snap he's
Speaker 1: with his cadence, he's taken him apart post snap. In
Speaker 1: this day and age with very little stadium noise and
Speaker 1: everything else. I mean, it's just Russell Wilson. I watch
Speaker 1: up close back home as well. It's the same thing.
Speaker 1: And that's where Gardner, to me, is going to It's
Speaker 1: not about his arm athleticism. I think he's a smart guy,
Speaker 1: but can he commands like you've got to do to
Speaker 1: be an elite guy at this level down in down out,
Speaker 1: series in, series out, game in, game out. And you're right,
Speaker 1: this is his prove it season, even with a lot
Speaker 1: of young people around him, and and and not nearly
Speaker 1: the defense they've had here in the past. That's what
Speaker 1: he's got to prove to this organization, to decision makers.
Speaker 1: Can he command the show at the line of scrimmage
Speaker 1: consistently like the great guys do. And right now, that's
Speaker 1: still I think to be fair work in progress. Yeah,
Speaker 1: how long does that process take to figure it out?
Speaker 1: We know how long he's going to have to figure
Speaker 1: it out. Can he do it in that amount of time?
Speaker 1: He has to show significant steps, you know, I remember
Speaker 1: Pete Carroll saying to me about Russell Wilson, it takes
Speaker 1: four or five years for you to get your master's degree,
Speaker 1: your true mastery of your system of what defenses are doing.
Speaker 1: So he's not gonna have four year master's degree here
Speaker 1: in year number two and what his eighteenth start. But
Speaker 1: what you've got to see is that command grow over
Speaker 1: the course of the season, right, I mean, he's he's
Speaker 1: his decision making touchdown, the interceptions very good. His accuracy
Speaker 1: to me is just fine. But when you watch Aaron,
Speaker 1: when you watch Mahomes, when you watch Russell, when you
Speaker 1: watch those guys at the very very top and you
Speaker 1: see Gollie, how did they change that protection? How did
Speaker 1: they change that play? How did they keep the defense
Speaker 1: on guessing at all times? How how did they constantly
Speaker 1: get to the very best play against anything thrown their way?
Speaker 1: That's what the very very elite do at this level
Speaker 1: now in this day and age. And as I said,
Speaker 1: he's not going to get his master's degree, but he's
Speaker 1: got to work towards it over the course of the season.
Speaker 1: And that's frankly what I'm excited to watch today against
Speaker 1: the Detroit team that does a bunch of junk at
Speaker 1: the line of scrimmage but ultimately plays a bunch of
Speaker 1: man behind it. Can he take advantage of it? Not
Speaker 1: for a series, not for a quarter, not for a half,
Speaker 1: can you do it for sixty minutes? Because this team
Speaker 1: will need him to brock Heward with us from Fox Sports.
Speaker 1: Balance has been the buzzword this week around t I A.
Speaker 1: Bank Field, getting James Robinson more involved deeper into the game.
Speaker 1: He had only thirteen carries last week and that laws
Speaker 1: in Houston, and it feels like that might take some
Speaker 1: of those things off Gardener's plate if they can balance
Speaker 1: things out for Ja Gruden, no question, and that sets
Speaker 1: up your movement where I think Gardener is very comfortable.
Speaker 1: That's sets up more play action and you have to
Speaker 1: be sitting there and to your point, a lot of
Speaker 1: it is situationally. When you're behind, you've just frankly got
Speaker 1: to throw it more, but to be dead last in
Speaker 1: the league sent for an old, old line coach like
Speaker 1: Doug Moron that that's just not that's not gonna work,
Speaker 1: That's not how you're gonna function. And on top of it,
Speaker 1: I really like your two tackles. Mccam. Robinson's in a
Speaker 1: contract year and you are seeing it. That guy is
Speaker 1: playing with the fury and a vengeance and a consistency.
Speaker 1: He's not shown his previous three. Juwan Taylor on the
Speaker 1: other side. I don't know if they keep a pancake
Speaker 1: stat in the NFL, but if they did for offensive tackles,
Speaker 1: I promised you he would be high up there and
Speaker 1: well above average. He has some snap and some nastiness.
Speaker 1: Uh A j Knts having his best year as a
Speaker 1: pro lender is the center. So this is a above
Speaker 1: average offensive line and the fact that they're sitting there
Speaker 1: at sixty six percent past that's not tenable, nor does
Speaker 1: it play to your strengths. And I would guess we're
Speaker 1: going to see a commitment to that run game today
Speaker 1: heard with us. Let's flip it to the Jaguars defense.
Speaker 1: They've had some three issues as of late but consistently
Speaker 1: throughout the year they have struggled to find pass rush,
Speaker 1: one sack in each of the five games so far,
Speaker 1: and really not a lot of pressure on quarterbacks in general.
Speaker 1: Not many hits, not many pressures. It's crucial to getting
Speaker 1: Matthew Stafford's face and make him move a little bit
Speaker 1: and dance those feet around. But if you don't, he
Speaker 1: has the awareness in the arm to carve you up.
Speaker 1: Yes he does. And and I think you're gonna see
Speaker 1: Todd wash be more aggressive now that the burden is
Speaker 1: to your point about some of the injuries, you know
Speaker 1: you're gonna I think see Korea starting their base package today.
Speaker 1: A guy that's had three days of work, you're gonna
Speaker 1: see the ball shared in my opinion, after about being
Speaker 1: here seven days. You're gonna see him take some significant
Speaker 1: snaps today. So I mean guys right literally right off
Speaker 1: the straight and Shared's case and and Korea totally different
Speaker 1: system his third and four years. So uh that that's
Speaker 1: gonna be a little burdensome on the early downs. But
Speaker 1: I think you're gonna see them cut it loose, especially
Speaker 1: if they get Detroit in the passing situations. While Detroit
Speaker 1: is Holiday is a big receiver. They don't scare you
Speaker 1: with their speed. Amdola didn't run that great. Marvin Jones
Speaker 1: isn't a Blazer by league standards. So I think they're
Speaker 1: gonna trust their people to play some man on the
Speaker 1: back end, and in any passing situation they can, they're
Speaker 1: gonna crank it up. But yeah, they're gonna be down
Speaker 1: somebodies today in that front. There's gonna be some brand
Speaker 1: new faces that they're gonna have to know the basics
Speaker 1: on early downs and then to your point, you've got
Speaker 1: to get home. You've got to hit. Matthew Stafford QB
Speaker 1: hits on the year, that's near the bottom of the league.
Speaker 1: The good news for them is they're facing the worst
Speaker 1: in the league as far as pressure. Detroit has five
Speaker 1: sacks as well and only like sixteen hits on the quarterback.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the team that that that gets the grass
Speaker 1: stains on either Gardener Gardner or Matthew Moore consistently, it's
Speaker 1: probably the team's gonna win finals. Thought here, whether you
Speaker 1: brought brought humored with us from Fox Sports two top
Speaker 1: corners in the draft last year, going ahead to hit, well,
Speaker 1: they're not going head to head. But they're on the
Speaker 1: same game this week, Jeff Okuda and c J. Henderson.
Speaker 1: Henderson was out last week with the shoulder. Sounds like
Speaker 1: he's good to go for today. Okuda the higher of
Speaker 1: the draft picks last year. How about those two guys
Speaker 1: earlier this season. Yeah, both of them stunted, you know,
Speaker 1: I think in their growth and development a little bit
Speaker 1: by injury for Akuda, especially with a hamstring that limited
Speaker 1: so much of his training camp. And Todd Wash was
Speaker 1: pretty honest with us and we were talking about Chase
Speaker 1: on not necessarily c J, but it, but it relates
Speaker 1: in much the same way. And he said, Man, these rookies,
Speaker 1: they're up against it more than any rookie class that
Speaker 1: he's ever seen, you know, because of this COVID situation,
Speaker 1: because of the c b A that in all the
Speaker 1: new rules and regulations both with COVID and the new
Speaker 1: CBA anyway, where these guys can't hit, can't play in pad.
Speaker 1: So rookies are are. Yeah, And for rookie corners, especially
Speaker 1: top ten corners that are counted on immediately to come
Speaker 1: in and be locked down, shutdown guys unrealistic with the
Speaker 1: off season and training camp. But both have certainly flashed,
Speaker 1: both have had some pick both of had some tackles
Speaker 1: for loss and and disruptive guys. And I know this,
Speaker 1: both of them are highly athletic and have that athletic
Speaker 1: arrogance that you need at that position. Great stuff, Rock,
Speaker 1: Enjoy Jacksonville. Great to see you and talk to you,
Speaker 1: and we'll hopefully see you down the line soon. And
Speaker 1: enjoy those college boards this year. I I really, I
Speaker 1: really do, I really do miss them, and who knows,
Speaker 1: maybe one day I'll see you on the road again.