Speaker 1: The volume. Okay, former pro scout, my buddy John Middlecough,
Speaker 1: as he does on Sunday, is about to stop by
Speaker 1: before we start with John, Grab your smartphone. Gonna take
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Speaker 1: What time is it? Game Time? All right? Instant reaction
Speaker 1: before we get to John Middlecough for an hour twenty
Speaker 1: two seventeen, Chiefs beat the Falcons. I hated Atlanta's decision
Speaker 1: making and play calling late in the fourth quarter and
Speaker 1: the last two drives. Absolutely hated it. Listen Kansas City's defense.
Speaker 1: It's not the you know eighty five Bears or the
Speaker 1: seventy five Steeters. But in terms of speed, it is
Speaker 1: they are fast. They are young, they are athletic, and
Speaker 1: they are fast. What are you doing trying to run
Speaker 1: outside on fourth downs? And the first fourth down you
Speaker 1: got deep in Chief's territory. Kick a field goal. There's
Speaker 1: like six seven minutes left.
Speaker 2: Kick a field goal.
Speaker 1: You get a lot of time. You know, Kansas City's
Speaker 1: offense is going to get a little bit conservative. You know,
Speaker 1: what are you doing?
Speaker 2: Then?
Speaker 1: The second one? It's all these outside runs and quick
Speaker 1: passes outside. The Chiefs are sure tackling, and they are
Speaker 1: really fast, and when they get you within their grasp,
Speaker 1: you're not getting out of it. So at point this
Speaker 1: are hard to come by. Opportunities are hard to come by,
Speaker 1: you know. And I hear all the belly aching about
Speaker 1: the officials. The Chiefs have won nine in a row.
Speaker 1: I lived in Connecticut for the ten year run eleven
Speaker 1: ten eleven years there, and I always heard about the officiating. Listen,
Speaker 1: there are a handful of teams in the NFL right now.
Speaker 1: Minnesota's got a great head coach and a great defensive coordinator.
Speaker 1: And when the Patriots were at their strength. They had
Speaker 1: Belichick's brain on defense, Josh McDaniel not a great head coach,
Speaker 1: but a great coordinator. Most Super Bowl teams have that.
Speaker 1: Steve Spagnols the best defensive coordinator. Andy's the smartest head
Speaker 1: coach in the league. So They've got all their grounds covered.
Speaker 1: They also draft and develop incredibly well. They're very young,
Speaker 1: They're very fast, very athletic. On defense, Atlanta's trying to
Speaker 1: run outside. It's fourth and an inch. Kirk Cousins is
Speaker 1: six to two, two hundred and twenty pounds. Do a sneak,
Speaker 1: do something. I just hated. Zach Robinson is their offensive coordinator.
Speaker 1: I just didn't like it at all. Too clever, it
Speaker 1: felt almost collegiate. It was a tricky, clever finesse b
Speaker 1: Jean Robinson over center and guard over and over and over.
Speaker 1: If I have fourth and one, three and one, because
Speaker 1: Atlanta's got a very good offensive line. So I just
Speaker 1: I thought that was that's the ballgame, situational football. Atlanta
Speaker 1: wasn't very good at it. Kansas City's excellent at it,
Speaker 1: and it used to be Kansas City would win these
Speaker 1: games always with a great drive. But Kansas City's winning
Speaker 1: some of these games, what are they won nine in
Speaker 1: a row off defensive stands. They're just hard to get
Speaker 1: in the end zone against. It's very band doesn't break
Speaker 1: very New England in their dynasty.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: It's it's defense. Kansas City's figured it out. You want
Speaker 1: the Rams right now, have the very young defense. What
Speaker 1: you want is a young defense because defensive players get
Speaker 1: hurt more often than offensive players, and so you want
Speaker 1: guys that if they do get hurt, they recover quickly.
Speaker 1: You can your offensive players, you know, you can have
Speaker 1: an old tight end or an old right tackle, they
Speaker 1: just don't get hurt as often. But defensive guys, you know,
Speaker 1: they're banging into people. They're trying to you know, blow
Speaker 1: up piles and blow up ball carriers. And it's a
Speaker 1: more violent side of the football. And so keep your
Speaker 1: defense young and it'll help your offensive coach spend your
Speaker 1: money on offense, draft your defense. And Kansas City's done
Speaker 1: incredibly well. That's why they can get rid of the
Speaker 1: cornerback sneed let him go, because they have Trent McDuffie
Speaker 1: and read its safety. They're just so talented. Atlanta's a
Speaker 1: very good football team though, and this you know this
Speaker 1: I was undefeated going into tonight three and Oho this
Speaker 1: afternoon blazing five, and I had the Falcons to night
Speaker 1: in the points, but over the course of the game,
Speaker 1: Kansas City dominating time of possession. I will say this,
Speaker 1: Rashi Rice has become a really really great player.
Speaker 2: He is a one.
Speaker 1: He is I don't know if he's you know, he's
Speaker 1: Justin Jefferson or Jamar Chase, but Rashi Rice is a
Speaker 1: really really good player. And they've they've been looking for
Speaker 1: that number one since they moved off Tyreek hill Worthy.
Speaker 1: He's going to be a gadget player. He's not going
Speaker 1: to be a big volume guy, but and he reads
Speaker 1: the best gadget coach in football, so that's fine. Juju
Speaker 1: Smith Schuster is another guy. He's been around, he's been
Speaker 1: in the system before they brought him in. He had
Speaker 1: a productive year. They didn't want to pay him, even
Speaker 1: off the New England where they overpaid him, and then
Speaker 1: they got him back. So Hollywood Brown gets back with Worthy,
Speaker 1: Rashi Rice, Juju Smith Schuster, Travis Kelcey. They have another
Speaker 1: tight end. They're going to be fine offensively, but it's
Speaker 1: defense for Kansas City that decides things. They're excellent Situationally,
Speaker 1: they have a consistent pass rush, and I like what
Speaker 1: I see. Very good football team. And he can complain
Speaker 1: about the officiating all you want. You know, it's not
Speaker 1: a surprise, you know, Brady and Belichick. You know, it's
Speaker 1: not like the NFL. If the NFL wanted certain teams
Speaker 1: to win, the Cowboys wouldn't keep getting dust at every
Speaker 1: time they play a big game. Right, Think about who's
Speaker 1: good in the NFL now, Kansas City, small market, Green Bay, Buffalo,
Speaker 1: small market, Baltimore for the last decade, small market. You know,
Speaker 1: the New York teams actually, for the first time in
Speaker 1: a long time, both had a good weekend. Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: on Thursday and the Giants offensive line gave Daniel Jones
Speaker 1: some protection today Neighbors as a stud New York finally
Speaker 1: had a good weekend. But this this sports al has
Speaker 1: been dominated by you know whoever the best coach is
Speaker 1: with the best quarterback. If you have that symmetry, you're
Speaker 1: gonna win a lot of games. Kansas City is a
Speaker 1: tough out. And you know, there's a lot of these
Speaker 1: teams I really like, but I don't trust them late
Speaker 1: in games. Big spots like Detroit. I don't trust Dan
Speaker 1: Campbell's play calling. Mike McCarthy at Dallas, don't trust him.
Speaker 1: They're just there's just quarterbacks or coaches. I don't know
Speaker 1: in big spots, Dan Campbell. You know Lamar Jackson in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, even today, Lamar Jackson has had opportunities to
Speaker 1: seal that game earlier for Baltimore and missed open tight
Speaker 1: ends or receivers. Kansas City is just the most confident
Speaker 1: team in the league and big spots because they've had
Speaker 1: so much success doing it. So it's a lot of
Speaker 1: rints and repeat. I mean, you know, when it got
Speaker 1: down to fourth and one at the end, I'm like, no, no,
Speaker 1: just they'd moved the ball outside the minute they handed
Speaker 1: that thing off, I'm like, no, not gonna happen. You're
Speaker 1: not gonna run outside on Kansas City in that kind
Speaker 1: of situation. They're just too fast and too well coached
Speaker 1: and too disciplined. So had ourselves a good football game,
Speaker 1: though it was a wild Sunday. John Middlcoff and I
Speaker 1: have a lot to talk about. We don't break down
Speaker 1: necessarily every single game, but the big headline games underdogs
Speaker 1: continue to do very well. In this league. It's why
Speaker 1: I liked Atlanta tonight. Is when you can get value
Speaker 1: and you get those you know, quality quarterbacks and points
Speaker 1: usually where I go. I do think after three weeks
Speaker 1: we have a pretty good set. How many surprises do
Speaker 1: we have after three weeks, Well, it looks like Minnesota
Speaker 1: is the surprise team of the league. We thought it
Speaker 1: was the Saints, they came back down to Earth. It
Speaker 1: looks like Minnesota. And we looked at the Viking schedule
Speaker 1: before the season started without what a guy the verse
Speaker 1: six or seven weeks. You know, if they go there're
Speaker 1: three and no, now you go four and oh you
Speaker 1: can play five hundred football for almost to the end
Speaker 1: of the season and still be in the playoff race.
Speaker 1: So Minnesota is the surprise team in the league. You
Speaker 1: could say Pittsburgh. It's still an offense that's just tough
Speaker 1: to watch, but I thought the Steelers would have a
Speaker 1: couple of losses by now. So each each conference has
Speaker 1: a team that I think Minnesota's surprising start is more
Speaker 1: redeemable and will last longer because it's an offensive league
Speaker 1: and they're just scoring a lot of points with a
Speaker 1: lot of different playmakers. I think Pittsburgh. You know, they
Speaker 1: beat bo Nicks. They facing some quarterbacks. Justin Herbert today
Speaker 1: is limping around the field. You know, I think they've
Speaker 1: gotten nice matchups so far. I don't think Pittsburgh's an
Speaker 1: eleven twelve win team. I think Minnesota looks like it
Speaker 1: absolutely could be. I'm doing everything right every week. It's
Speaker 1: a different defensive star. Offensively, they're spreading the ball around,
Speaker 1: multiple targets, the coaching, the quarterback, play, the kicker. I mean,
Speaker 1: everything works for Minnesota. I think Pittsburgh will come down
Speaker 1: to earth. But what Kansas City is doing is what
Speaker 1: great teams do. Coach quarterback, speed, situational defense, and Rashi
Speaker 1: Rice has developed into a tremendous playmaker, big time player now.
Speaker 1: So Owen two teams went five and one. Today the
Speaker 1: Titans are the only Owen three team. So it was
Speaker 1: desperation a week. You get down to weeks three and
Speaker 1: four and teams that are winless they're playing. That's why
Speaker 1: I took Denver over Tampa. You get down to it
Speaker 1: and there's a sense of desperation in this league, and
Speaker 1: you know, Tennessee's not gonna win a lot of games.
Speaker 1: And I think they have some good personnel, but you know,
Speaker 1: Will Levis just makes any mistakes.
Speaker 2: It is what it is.
Speaker 1: A lot of these young quarterbacks, for second year quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: are so dependent on the situation and the coach. I
Speaker 1: mean Malik Willison, Green Bay. He's got a great coach.
Speaker 1: People bailed on him, kids played well. Good for him.
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Speaker 1: with Uber Eats. They're all crazy Sundays, They're all crazy Sundays.
Speaker 1: I have to start rams Niners. Los Angeles stole a win.
Speaker 1: I mean, Matt Stafford. It really was a team win.
Speaker 1: It was special teams. It was a couple of huge
Speaker 1: defense defensive plays. I don't want to give Stafford all
Speaker 1: the credit because he you know, he didn't have a
Speaker 1: couple of his top targets. But and Christian McCaffrey, I mean,
Speaker 1: you go look at his numbers. Highly efficient. Juwan Jennings
Speaker 1: is the best third receiver in the NFL by a
Speaker 1: long shot. John, You watched this game. I saw Atlanta
Speaker 1: do this to the Eagles. We watched this a week ago.
Speaker 1: They just walked out stole a win. I honestly felt
Speaker 1: like Dallas tried to do this against Baltimore, but they
Speaker 1: were in too big of a hole. What was your
Speaker 1: big takeaway or two? And the Niners blowing this thing.
Speaker 2: Well, I think the culture of the Rams speaks for itself.
Speaker 2: I mean, we've seen some gutless performances over the last
Speaker 2: couple of weeks, and they kind of had one last
Speaker 2: week and they showed up and they fought. I mean
Speaker 2: even when that game they were getting worked but the
Speaker 2: score wasn't at a range. I think this, for as
Speaker 2: much as it is about the Rams, I think this
Speaker 2: is the worst Kyle Shanahan loss of his era. Wow,
Speaker 2: in terms of their good, good teams, I mean, they've
Speaker 2: had some bad years, but in terms of their Super
Speaker 2: Bowl tending teams, I mean, Colin, you play a team
Speaker 2: with out the two best wide receivers, how often when
Speaker 2: a guy made a tackle on the rams, I fall
Speaker 2: football as closely as any human that doesn't work in
Speaker 2: the NFL. I had to google multiple guys, you know.
Speaker 2: I mean, they are rolling out players I've never heard of.
Speaker 2: And to lose that game. Party was excellent. He was incredible.
Speaker 2: Special teams has killed Kyle Shanahan. Kyle Shanahan is an
Speaker 2: excellent play caller. He for an offensive guy, values defense,
Speaker 2: so that has never been a concern with their team.
Speaker 2: He does not care about special teams at all. And listen,
Speaker 2: you're gonna make and miss some field goals. But they
Speaker 2: had a punt, yep fake punt that led to a
Speaker 2: first down, and then that play at the end of
Speaker 2: the game that I don't know how many yards it
Speaker 2: was at least forty that basically ended the game immediately
Speaker 2: when he took that across the fifty. And it has
Speaker 2: been a thorn in the forty nine ers side when
Speaker 2: you look at Belichick for twenty years in their dynasty
Speaker 2: special teams he takes them. Seriously, what does Andy Reid do?
Speaker 2: Hire Dave Toe the best special teams coordinator? Even look
Speaker 2: at Sean McVay over the years have always had good
Speaker 2: coordinators the forty nine ers with special teams. This is
Speaker 2: not college football. Even if the Niners you play that
Speaker 2: game ten times, are winning it nine times. Yeah, But
Speaker 2: because it's the NFL, these scores are never gonna be
Speaker 2: forty to fifteen, right, It's just like, oh it's seventeen
Speaker 2: to ten, it's twenty four to seven. It just the
Speaker 2: margins are so small, and one bad play and you
Speaker 2: look at the end of the game, a missfield, go
Speaker 2: boom Rams win. Yeah, I mean right, win for the Rams,
Speaker 2: awful win for the awful moment for the Niners.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it saved the Rams season because if you go
Speaker 1: zer and three, statistically you're out of the playoff race.
Speaker 1: And it's not only a win, it's a win against
Speaker 1: your rivals, it's a division win, and it feels it's
Speaker 1: the kind of win that's it has a domino effect.
Speaker 1: They had multiple misplaced offensive linemen. I mean they didn't
Speaker 1: have their center, one of their guards. They were moving
Speaker 1: people around. They've been doing that all season. No Pooka,
Speaker 1: no Cooper Cup. They've always had a bunch of capable
Speaker 1: white receivers like two two at Well was a second
Speaker 1: round pick. He felt like for two years he.
Speaker 2: Was a bust.
Speaker 1: But he made a huge, huge catch late. And you
Speaker 1: know the thing about Stafford. You know, when I watched
Speaker 1: Matt Stafford play, you have to love football to get
Speaker 1: how good it is. Like he's not gonna move around.
Speaker 1: It's it's just there's there's an ease of picking up
Speaker 1: third downs. He just I'm not sure there's anybody in
Speaker 1: the league that on a second and eleven with backup
Speaker 1: receivers could consistently get thirteen yards. Matt just and I
Speaker 1: think he's in step with McVeigh. And you got to
Speaker 1: give Stafford credit here. He hasn't had his offensive line
Speaker 1: or as top receivers all year. It's a mess. And
Speaker 1: the fact that they won this thing today and it's
Speaker 1: not Rock Purdy. Cause again I will say this about
Speaker 1: San Francisco, Brandon Aiyuk made a calculated mistake. He's not
Speaker 1: he is just not valuable to that offense right now.
Speaker 2: No, he's irrelevant. I mean Perdy Juwan Jennings, who has
Speaker 2: been one of the better third wide receivers in the
Speaker 2: NFL was elite today. I mean he had a career
Speaker 2: that he dominated the game and Perdy can't play any better.
Speaker 2: But like you said with Stafford, he is such a
Speaker 2: physically gifted player, right, I mean his physical gifts I
Speaker 2: would say parallel like Rogers, just in terms of how
Speaker 2: he's a little older now, but how athletic he is,
Speaker 2: how big his arm was. But the game tying touchdown,
Speaker 2: what did he do changed to play at the line.
Speaker 2: His hands were up laying Kippen style when the guy
Speaker 2: was five yards away from the end zone. So his brain,
Speaker 2: him and McVeigh are in sync. Obviously when you have
Speaker 2: that many injuries and the Niners have owned this team. Yeah.
Speaker 2: The other thing is the hard part for the Rams
Speaker 2: when you play the nine that's a Niner home game.
Speaker 2: I mean even Sanchez was saying it's sixty five to
Speaker 2: seventy percent Niners fans. Just what a turn of events.
Speaker 2: I mean they were up seven points late with a
Speaker 2: chance to make it ten, which would have ended the game.
Speaker 2: He missed the field goal and the rest is history.
Speaker 2: But isn't that what makes Sunday so great? You're like oh,
Speaker 2: it's kind of sleepy. All of a sudden, you look up.
Speaker 2: You got the Cowboys within striking distance. The Rams are
Speaker 2: right there. That's what makes the NFL pretty special. But man,
Speaker 2: that's the Niners are lucky they're playing the Patriots this
Speaker 2: upcoming week because in a couple of weeks they have
Speaker 2: a short week against Seattle, who, while they've dominated Gino,
Speaker 2: they look like a pretty well buttoned up team. I
Speaker 2: know you were beating the drums on them. Not that
Speaker 2: Miami's any good, but they they've played pretty good this season,
Speaker 2: so you're right. I'm thinking when the Rams, it looks
Speaker 2: like it's inevitable they're gonna lose halfway through the game.
Speaker 2: How do you overcome b and zero and three in
Speaker 2: this division losing to the Niners. Seattle's off and running.
Speaker 2: You have so many injuries. It's almost like your season's
Speaker 2: over before we even get to October. Now you just
Speaker 2: get a little life. All of a sudden, you get
Speaker 2: one more win. You're two and two. You're feeling pretty good.
Speaker 1: I know mcveay's had a lot of big wins. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure outside of the Super Bowl or maybe a
Speaker 1: big NFC championship I'm not sure there's a more.
Speaker 2: Goat a season.
Speaker 1: It's literally a more gratifying win.
Speaker 2: And it really was.
Speaker 1: If you go look at who made the big defensive
Speaker 1: plays for the Rams today, there were like six different
Speaker 1: guys on a big third down row. They just had
Speaker 1: a They had corners, rush ends, linebackers. I mean it
Speaker 1: was the classic team win, special teams McVeigh, Stafford, Kyron
Speaker 1: Williams to flip into the end zone. So the Rams
Speaker 1: come back to beat the Niners was at twenty seven.
Speaker 2: So one thing on one thing on the Niners really quick, Colin.
Speaker 2: I mean they're paying a lot of guys a lot
Speaker 2: of money who are on the sideline. I mean, Kittle's
Speaker 2: just a guy who gets banged up a lot. Now
Speaker 2: he makes a lot of money for a tight end.
Speaker 2: Deebo makes over twenty million dollars. Love the guy, but
Speaker 2: he missed his games every single season. And they gave
Speaker 2: Christian McCaffrey a raise this offseason and he makes eighteen
Speaker 2: nineteen million dollars, which relative to other positions isn't crazy.
Speaker 2: Before running back gets the highest and he's who knows
Speaker 2: when he's ever going to play again this season, So
Speaker 2: that's you know, this is what happens when you invest
Speaker 2: in some older guys, injured guys. They got lucky. They
Speaker 2: have some guys that could step up. But man, I mean,
Speaker 2: it's just that they have a lot of valuable ask
Speaker 2: that's sitting in street clothes on the sideline next to
Speaker 2: Kyle and it caught up with him today. All right.
Speaker 1: Eagles beat the Saints fifteen to twelve. I had said
Speaker 1: after the loss on Monday Night Football. I had said,
Speaker 1: Eagle fans, take a deep breath. Your offense is fine.
Speaker 1: Without AJ Brown, it's not the same. And so I
Speaker 1: thought the Eagles, I mean, listen, they had they doubled
Speaker 1: the yards and the Saints they averaged like six point
Speaker 1: eight yards of play. And I'll give Jalen Hurts credit here.
Speaker 1: Basically without AJ Brown, he just said, I'm gonna throw
Speaker 1: to Dallas Goddard, I'm gonna throw to DeVante Smith. Between
Speaker 1: the two, they had seventeen catches. I'm gonna use my
Speaker 1: legs a little bit here, but I will give Jalen
Speaker 1: Hurts credit. He's just like, I got two guys I trust.
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go back and forth to them. Those
Speaker 1: guys had seventeen catches. That was my first take, and
Speaker 1: they had they had a lot of yards. Listen, we
Speaker 1: can get into Nick Sirianni and I'll let you go there.
Speaker 1: But I also think it was a little unveiled of
Speaker 1: the Saints. Alvin Kamara was kept in check and Derek
Speaker 1: Carr was averaged in the first couple of weeks. Alvin
Speaker 1: Kamara was so special and so dynamic that you, I mean,
Speaker 1: it was like you had this balanced attack. You shut
Speaker 1: down Alvin Kamara. Eagles front seven played well. Suddenly, Derek
Speaker 1: there's limitations. He missed a deep ball, he had a
Speaker 1: deep ball and under threw a guy. So my takeaway
Speaker 1: was Philadelphia is really good. They're not the same offense
Speaker 1: without Aj Brown, but most Eagle fans today and I
Speaker 1: think you're going to probably be on this as a
Speaker 1: former employer. Is the Nick Sirianni question.
Speaker 2: Well, I think at this point you wouldn't be that.
Speaker 2: I don't even know how to just cavalier just whatever
Speaker 2: about going forward on these fourth downs if the guy
Speaker 2: signing your checks wasn't behind it. And the one thing
Speaker 2: Jeffrey Lurie is he's a big numbers guy, and the
Speaker 2: organization loves to be really progressive. Yeah, they love to
Speaker 2: be like Silicon Valley in front of every team. And
Speaker 2: now a lot of teams over the last couple of
Speaker 2: years have implemented that go for it on fourth down.
Speaker 2: It does seem like they've even taken it to another level.
Speaker 2: I'm all for going for it if you're playing in
Speaker 2: high scoring games. If you're like in the Cowboys situation,
Speaker 2: field goals do you nothing when you're down twenty thirty points? Right?
Speaker 2: They are playing in low scoring games, colin field goals.
Speaker 2: I mean the Saints, you could it was clear. It's like,
Speaker 2: I don't think they're getting a twenty today, So three
Speaker 2: points if the final, if they're only going to score
Speaker 2: twelve or fifteen points, just do the percentage, do the
Speaker 2: math that they are extremely valuable and sometimes going for
Speaker 2: like on the forty five. Okay, if you're not comfortable
Speaker 2: with kicking a field goal, their offense is not playing well,
Speaker 2: it is not moving the ball against you. Your defense
Speaker 2: is coming to play vic Fangio is neutralizing this kind
Speaker 2: of Koubiak Shanahan offense. So just play defense and they
Speaker 2: just refuse to do it. And that game, like you said,
Speaker 2: shouldn't have been as close as it was. It would
Speaker 2: have been a nice easy game for the Eagles relative
Speaker 2: to the score. They still would have won by nine points.
Speaker 2: But he refused to kick field goals, and at this
Speaker 2: point I know he's emotional and he gets I can't
Speaker 2: believe he's doing this without the blessing of the owner.
Speaker 2: I'm even going above Howie this is. You would not
Speaker 2: be doing this if your owner's telling you, like, let's
Speaker 2: kick some field goals, right, I mean that, I don't
Speaker 2: care what you do for a living, whoever signs your checks,
Speaker 2: if they come like, hey, let's not do that anymore,
Speaker 2: any human being is gonna change unless you just want
Speaker 2: to get fired on the spot. Like to me, the
Speaker 2: owners behind it, the organization's behind it. But it's kind
Speaker 2: of jumped the shark, hasn't it. Like today was like
Speaker 2: like Derek, the last drive of the game, they're down three,
Speaker 2: not six. If you're playing up a more, just that's
Speaker 2: a low football IQ throw you don't need you're not down.
Speaker 2: You know, you don't need to score a touchdown here
Speaker 2: a dump down, throw it away you Just a field
Speaker 2: goal ties the game. So that they got lucky to
Speaker 2: be in this but they were in that situation for
Speaker 2: a reason. Yeah, because he just never kicks field goals.
Speaker 1: So I'm a Hurtz fan. He was twenty nine to
Speaker 1: thirty eight eight Rushes. I am a fan. But we
Speaker 1: have to acknowledge this.
Speaker 2: John.
Speaker 1: This is something I've talked about and it's in your wheelhouse.
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray is as elusive including Lamar, as almost anybody
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. But we know mostly as offensive linemen
Speaker 1: have gotten bigger. There are guards now at six '
Speaker 1: six that it helps for a quarterback to be six
Speaker 1: two to six four. It's really an advantage. And sometimes Tua,
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray, Russell Wilson and I think Jalen Hurts, I'm
Speaker 1: not always sure they see the ball over the middle
Speaker 1: of the field. I like Hurts. I think he's a
Speaker 1: class act. I think he's an adult. I think he's
Speaker 1: an easy guy to rally around. I think he's a
Speaker 1: great athlete. Do you ever feel like watching them sometimes?
Speaker 1: And I think this is sort of the AJ Brown thing.
Speaker 1: You don't have to throw over the middle to AJ Brown,
Speaker 1: you can throw over the top. That was always Russell
Speaker 1: Wilson's thing. Greg co Sel said he doesn't see the
Speaker 1: middle of the field.
Speaker 2: We didn't have to.
Speaker 1: Russell was great at the tear drop throws, and I
Speaker 1: think aj Brown when you take him out, there's some
Speaker 1: limitation on the big playability. I don't know if Jalen
Speaker 1: Hurts always sees the field even you buy that or not.
Speaker 2: Well, he one percent doesn't. He's not great from within
Speaker 2: the pocket. Whether that's physically he doesn't see it great
Speaker 2: or just the speed in which everything happens. He doesn't
Speaker 2: operate at the fast level of the elite guys of
Speaker 2: Mahomes of Rogers. I don't even think that's debatable at
Speaker 2: this point. That's why when he scrambles outside the pocket, Yes,
Speaker 2: the good version of Deshaun Watson, the prime version of Russell.
Speaker 2: They become elite when they do that. They can see
Speaker 2: everything and they're comfortable throwing the ball far. But he's
Speaker 2: not a great layered throw. Of all the little guys
Speaker 2: you listed by a mile, Kyler spins it the best, right.
Speaker 2: Kyle spins the ball out of his hands like he's
Speaker 2: Stafford or Rogers. I'm telling you, even Watson today, I
Speaker 2: know they kind of got work. He just he's a
Speaker 2: remarkable talent I don't think Jalen is like a remarkable
Speaker 2: talent from a throwing perspective.
Speaker 1: I don't either.
Speaker 2: He's a remarkable athlete, powerful his running, he turns into
Speaker 2: a running back right with his power, his elusiveness. He's
Speaker 2: a great outside the pocket thrower. Inside the pocket, I
Speaker 2: would say he's pretty average for NFL starting right. He
Speaker 2: ranks higher on the list as an overall player, but
Speaker 2: that individual skill close to the middle of the pack. Like,
Speaker 2: to me, Tua is a much better rhythm and timing player, yes,
Speaker 2: because he doesn't have what Jalen has to run around right,
Speaker 2: you watch Lamar today, he just has so much more
Speaker 2: to bring to the table. Those guys can always go Okay,
Speaker 2: I don't see it, fuck it, I'm just gonna take off. Well.
Speaker 1: I think Jalen doesn't throw it like Kyler, and doesn't
Speaker 1: doesn't run like Kyler, and doesn't throw it like Tua.
Speaker 1: He's a bit of a tweeener. It's what I've always
Speaker 1: said about Dak. There's no wow with Dak. He's competent
Speaker 1: with Jalen. He's not a wow arm not wow accuracy
Speaker 1: not He's elusive, but he's not like Lamar Kyler Murray
Speaker 1: or Josh Allen. So I think with Jalen he does
Speaker 1: feel like the best of the B plus quarterbacks in
Speaker 1: the league. I like him and I like his character.
Speaker 1: It's why I like Dak. I like Dak's character and maturity.
Speaker 1: But I when I watched Jalen throw, it just looks
Speaker 1: prettier with Stafford, it looks easier. With Josh Allen, it
Speaker 1: looks Kyler Murray. The ball just you can tell you
Speaker 1: played baseball, just flies. Aaron Rodgers still throws a pretty ball. So,
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, Philadelphia escapes with a win. I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna watch Philadelphia. They're gonna win the division.
Speaker 1: They're gonna win about ten to eleven games, and at
Speaker 1: some point coaching or defense will lose them a football game.
Speaker 2: Well, I know this just based We talk so much
Speaker 2: about these contracts during the offseason, and they have gotten
Speaker 2: so massive in the NFL, Right, yeah, NBA level status.
Speaker 2: From an economical standpoint, there can't be a better value
Speaker 2: than twenty seven million dollars guaranteed to Saquon Barkley, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, they just can't. I mean, he won in
Speaker 2: the game that he was dominant and on that big
Speaker 2: run that ultimately sealed the game. That was like, Oh,
Speaker 2: this is the Penn State version that still can run
Speaker 2: about four to two in the open field. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: adding that guy. While they've had some disappointments, I think
Speaker 2: their defensive line Jalen Carter was really good today. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Jordan Davis. They drafted over Kyle Hamilton. I think they'd
Speaker 2: like that one back, Bryce Huff who they signed from
Speaker 2: the Jets. Basically the flop with this on. He's not
Speaker 2: an every down player. He's more of a pass rusher,
Speaker 2: so he can get run on. But Saquon has been
Speaker 2: incredible for them. And this was clear during the hard
Speaker 2: Knocks when John Marrow was saying this, you went, it's
Speaker 2: not gonna go well because Saquon's gonna look good. He's
Speaker 2: looked even better. Yeah, the drop a little freakish. I
Speaker 2: know his hands aren't exactly Marshall fall, but today he
Speaker 2: just how good he looks and how confident he's running
Speaker 2: in speed. He's a game breaker in relative they're paying
Speaker 2: Brandon Ayuk. They gave him over seventy five million dollars guaranteed.
Speaker 2: Saquon got a third of that. So when you just
Speaker 2: look at impact and look at the running backs right
Speaker 2: now in the NFL. I know it went like everyone's like,
Speaker 2: you know mel Kiper's comment last it's harder to throw
Speaker 2: right now. Defenses are making it more difficult. The offensive
Speaker 2: line plays down, Well, what's up all these running backs? Well,
Speaker 2: who's really shining? All the top running backs? And Saquon's
Speaker 2: knew the top of the list because he was, and
Speaker 2: that's a tough place to play. That place was rocking.
Speaker 2: He was, he was elite today.
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Speaker 1: Winning in the NFL is hard, Hiring Morgan and Morgan
Speaker 1: is easy. Before I get to Dallas. In Baltimore, Sam
Speaker 1: Donald four touchdowns, no pick, so thirty four thirty four
Speaker 1: to seven. Vikings did everything right and hammered Houston, And
Speaker 1: I was thinking about this is that What makes it
Speaker 1: tough for Caleb Williams is if you watch what Matt
Speaker 1: Lafleur is doing with Malik Willis, who looked like he
Speaker 1: could not play the position a year ago, and you
Speaker 1: watch what Kevin O'Connell is doing with Sam Donald and listen,
Speaker 1: I don't think Dan Campbell is situationally a great coach,
Speaker 1: but he's a culture builder. We got three coaches in
Speaker 1: that division who are really good at what they do. Right, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm watching Kevin and I look at Matt Eberflus and
Speaker 1: I'm like, bro, you're not in that class. Forget that.
Speaker 2: For now.
Speaker 1: I'm watching Kevin O'Connell. Everything Donald does, now this is
Speaker 1: the USC version. And I keep waiting for the bubble
Speaker 1: to burst, Accuracy, playmaking, running deep ball and these reckless plays.
Speaker 1: Now he got you know, he tried to extend a
Speaker 1: play today. Ball gets on the carpet. But it's not
Speaker 1: just that Donald's winning, John, He's clean the four touchdowns,
Speaker 1: no picks. And this has been with banged up players
Speaker 1: like I keep waiting for the bubble to burst. But
Speaker 1: I watched them today and I'm like, shit, that wasn't competitive.
Speaker 1: Houston got smoked.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that was a team that I don't
Speaker 2: think any of us would be shocked as playing the
Speaker 2: Chiefs in the AFC Championship game, right, And that was
Speaker 2: And listen one thing Donald and that franchise that their
Speaker 2: home field advantage is pretty awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could tell how today was out of sorts
Speaker 1: to the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 2: The other thing that got going for him is this
Speaker 2: guy has some serious question marks with his ability to
Speaker 2: relate and deal with quarterbacks. But I don't think there's
Speaker 2: any disputing that Flores is right up there with Spagnola
Speaker 2: is the two best defensive coordinators in the NFL. Non
Speaker 2: head coaches like true defensive coordinator. It's last week Kyle
Speaker 2: and Perdy were like, we didn't even know what we were seeing,
Speaker 2: and clearly Slowick and CJ were just over their head today.
Speaker 2: What has happened to Sam Donald these last couple weeks,
Speaker 2: last three weeks lead little pressure off that he plays comfortable.
Speaker 2: Obviously they got skill guys, but as we talk on
Speaker 2: September twenty second, we got a long way to go.
Speaker 2: Like we're talking like an MVP candidate. I mean, if
Speaker 2: you just vote today, he might win it. But I
Speaker 2: mean this guy and back to the Bears, you go.
Speaker 2: I don't think the Bears have any chance to not
Speaker 2: be the fourth best team in this division with what
Speaker 2: I'm seeing right now, because these other teams from a
Speaker 2: coaching LaForce pulling like a picasso right.
Speaker 1: Now, it's incredible.
Speaker 2: I mean they dominated. He had Malik Willis looking like
Speaker 2: a varsity guy versus Will Levis that looks like a
Speaker 2: pee wee guy. I mean, it's just like not even
Speaker 2: a fair fight when they just handed you Malik Willis
Speaker 2: three weeks ago. So it's that's insane. Obviously, the lines
Speaker 2: are good and what Minnesota is doing. Once you get
Speaker 2: to like three and oh or four and one, you
Speaker 2: can have a two game losing streak and still get
Speaker 2: the ten wins pretty easily. You watch the Bears, they
Speaker 2: look as dysfunctional as a team. I would say, is
Speaker 2: any team in the league when you just watch them play,
Speaker 2: you just go, this is not good. And when you
Speaker 2: watch Minnesota pull the opposite, you go it feels crazy
Speaker 2: to say, but like, is this an NFC contender?
Speaker 1: Well, it's funny. First of all, the three or four
Speaker 1: things that we think create that great head coach got it,
Speaker 1: quarterback playing at an elite level, Darnald is weapons. Usually
Speaker 1: there's a great coordinator on a Super Bowl team, Demiko
Speaker 1: Ryans with the Niners. Okay, so they've got a great coordinator.
Speaker 1: And then usually situationally a good defensive team, there's a
Speaker 1: pass rusher somewhere. Well, they're playing good situational defense. So
Speaker 1: you know, it sounds crazy, but you know if they
Speaker 1: go four and oh, you can go five hundred until
Speaker 1: week seventeen and you're a ten and sixteen you go
Speaker 1: four and oh, you can scuff it. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: if you go back to last year, the good in
Speaker 1: Kansas City had a bad month November. It's like the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl year when the Rams won it. They were
Speaker 1: choppy early with Stafford.
Speaker 2: Remember two years ago when the Vikings, they ended up
Speaker 2: losing the Giants in the first round, but they won
Speaker 2: the division and they had that crazy record in all
Speaker 2: those one score games. I think they went twelve and
Speaker 2: five and they had like a historic record one score games,
Speaker 2: like twelve and one, and everyone's like, this is smoking mirrors.
Speaker 2: This team isn't that good. This team looks completely different
Speaker 2: than that team. Yes, right, they look real. That team
Speaker 2: look a little fraudulent. It is. I mean, Sam's by
Speaker 2: the time they get toward the big games, is gonna
Speaker 2: keep getting a lot of reps and be really comfortable.
Speaker 2: And the other thing is your head coach gets to
Speaker 2: really know what he's good at, what he's not good at.
Speaker 2: And when you got that good of a defense, it
Speaker 2: is just we talk about like a running game and
Speaker 2: a tight end being a quarterbacks best friend. You know,
Speaker 2: what's the quarterback's best friend? When the other team can't score, right,
Speaker 2: that's what the other team can't don't They can barely
Speaker 2: move the ball past midfield. The Texans offense has one
Speaker 2: of the best round quarterbacks we've ever seen, just based
Speaker 2: on record and stats. They are loaded with skill guys
Speaker 2: and have a coach that basically everyone has already put
Speaker 2: into a head coaching position by next year or the
Speaker 2: next two years in Bobby Sloak, and they got ransacked today.
Speaker 1: Well, at the end of you know, not only do
Speaker 1: the Vikings have the components of a really good team,
Speaker 1: but I had said this when they exchanged Darnld and McCarthy,
Speaker 1: by the way, who they drafted for Kirk Cousins, they
Speaker 1: just lacked juice, like they can't do anything off script,
Speaker 1: which has always been a golf actually ran for a
Speaker 1: first down in the game ceiling play today, which I
Speaker 1: thought was kind of funny. But by and large, with
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins, you can win a lot of games without
Speaker 1: a quarterback that moves. But Donald gives them what they
Speaker 1: were hoping JJ McCarthy gives them. With Kevin o'conn, he
Speaker 1: just gives you a juice. Stafford doesn't give you a
Speaker 1: ton of that. But Matt is as good as Brady
Speaker 1: pre snap and throws the prettiest ball arguably in the league.
Speaker 1: So when you're that good Brady in the pocket pre snap,
Speaker 1: Brady throws a ball like that, it allows you. And
Speaker 1: also Brady and Stafford moved great within the pocket, they're
Speaker 1: great between the tackles. They move constantly. But I you know,
Speaker 1: I just I'm just watching them, and I'm like the coach,
Speaker 1: the coordinator, the quarterback, and Darnald. To knock on Darnal,
Speaker 1: I always said this, there's a little Andrew Louck, a
Speaker 1: little and a little Carson Wentz. And he became a
Speaker 1: bad version of Carson Wentz, which is he's big, he's strong,
Speaker 1: he's athletic, he's tough, but Jesus is he reckless. You
Speaker 1: take out the reckless from Darnald and I get the big, strong,
Speaker 1: tough playmaker. You know, this is why people drafted him early.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think last year changed his life. I think,
Speaker 2: you know, seeing Brock, who's not as talented him, and
Speaker 2: he even said this, he's like watching the way that
Speaker 2: guy prepared. And then being around Kyle, who is like,
Speaker 2: you know, an old school nineteen eighties coach in terms
Speaker 2: of how he wants things done. I think gave him
Speaker 2: a whole new perspective on just his football career. And
Speaker 2: then Kevin O'Connell came through. The Niners wanted to keep him,
Speaker 2: but they couldn't pay ten million dollars. I think I
Speaker 2: said this last week, and I don't know how I
Speaker 2: can't say it again. If this continues and they make
Speaker 2: the playoffs and they win a playoff game, it's not
Speaker 2: like they traded up like some of these other teams
Speaker 2: to get JJ. He just fell into their lap essentially, right.
Speaker 2: They didn't mortgage three first round picks. Do you just
Speaker 2: let him go? I mean, everyone's like, why do we talk?
Speaker 2: These are conversations that you start having. This is a
Speaker 2: real life thing. JJ's on a cheap contract. He wasn't
Speaker 2: the number one pick. He was like the tenth or eleventh,
Speaker 2: so his contract's not crazy. Do you extend Sam Darnold
Speaker 2: if this if you win twelve games and he's that
Speaker 2: good with your head coat, isn't the whole point of
Speaker 2: this just to find a quarterback? Yeah? Right, So it's like,
Speaker 2: you don't just let him hit free agency and go
Speaker 2: we'll see with JJ, because we're going, we're going we'll
Speaker 2: see with and how's that going?
Speaker 1: By the way, you could probably get Darnold for him,
Speaker 1: and he's so appreciative of fun. You know, Sam's made
Speaker 1: some money in his career. You get him for a steal.
Speaker 2: Well, wouldn't you just give him like two years sixty
Speaker 2: million dollars guarantee at all. I'd offer that to him
Speaker 2: right now. Yeah, Now, maybe he wants to hit the market.
Speaker 2: Maybe you go, well, we could franchise tag you. These
Speaker 2: are good problems to have because clearly they like JJ.
Speaker 2: But you can't just go with the hope and a
Speaker 2: prayer and fingers crossed. Like, I know he looked good
Speaker 2: in that preseason game, but already hurt, you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: this was a guy that had some developmental questions. Still,
Speaker 2: this is a twenty seven year old highly developed from
Speaker 2: a much scene at all. That's the thing. You cannot
Speaker 2: fake going through the shit and coming out on the
Speaker 2: other end when you do have the We've seen this
Speaker 2: historically in the NFL Rich Now, Rich was older when
Speaker 2: he got to Gruden. Some of these guys just resurrect
Speaker 2: their career and they just become what you kind of
Speaker 2: always thought they could become. And that's what Sam has
Speaker 2: done for three weeks. Today was like today was an
Speaker 2: eye opener for their team him specific same hits Tamiko
Speaker 2: in that defense was that's one of the best wins
Speaker 2: of the year by far.
Speaker 1: Yeah, JJ McCarthy had a tweet today. By the way,
Speaker 1: it was Sam Darnold's really good at football.
Speaker 2: I thought that was and that also speaks to why
Speaker 2: character matters so much in the NFL. Look at Pani's
Speaker 2: handled it perfectly. Haven't heard a peep JJ McCarthy doing
Speaker 2: stuff like that. When you get in these weird positions
Speaker 2: with some of these questionable guys at that position, you
Speaker 2: can get weird. So it just won't get weird, right
Speaker 2: because JJ is such a high level dude.
Speaker 1: All right, Cowboys Ravens. Cowboys made a furious comeback late,
Speaker 1: but we should go back to the first half where
Speaker 1: Baltimore had a huge lead average eight point eight yards
Speaker 1: of play. Dallas was demoralized and it looked like the
Speaker 1: fourth time between Buffalo and Green Bay last year, the
Speaker 1: Saints in Baltimore. This year, Dallas was getting their doors
Speaker 1: loan off. Now again Baltimore's Now they lost a lead
Speaker 1: to the Raiders. They lost a big lead. This is
Speaker 1: kind of I mean, Lamar Jackson struggled with some accuracy
Speaker 1: when he could have sown stuff up. He had Mark
Speaker 1: Edwards wide open on a play on a third down.
Speaker 1: You know, I've I've come back to Dallas once and
Speaker 1: I said, in this game, forty percent of daks wins
Speaker 1: are against the Giants in Washington at the height of
Speaker 1: their dysfunction. The New York Giants now have cleaned up
Speaker 1: that offensive line a little bit, and they actually look
Speaker 1: pretty good today. The Daniel Jones doesn't look as nervous
Speaker 1: neighbors as an absolutely freaking stud.
Speaker 2: Jesus, is he good? Holy shit? Is he good? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So all of a sudden, you know, the Giants had
Speaker 1: Now Dallas is going to New York pretty soon and
Speaker 1: Dallas is offensive lineay football. Yeah. And so by the way,
Speaker 1: Giants old line is pretty good and the Dallas d
Speaker 1: lines getting pushed around. So that game is going to
Speaker 1: be really interesting. But my take was, and I said
Speaker 1: that this week is in a big game, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: take Lamar over Dak. I just don't think Dallas that talented.
Speaker 1: I do think they're a little better at wide receiver
Speaker 1: that I gave him credit for. But the defensive line
Speaker 1: Baltimore averaged through three quarters nine yards of play on
Speaker 1: the road. So my take is the better team won.
Speaker 1: It wasn't really that close, and that we've got to
Speaker 1: I said this at the end of last year, John,
Speaker 1: I felt the Niners had peaked because of their age,
Speaker 1: and I felt Dallas was going to slowly regress. We
Speaker 1: were going to see now they were going to go
Speaker 1: on ten wins from twelve, and the next year it'll
Speaker 1: be nine wins. I look at Dallas and the blame
Speaker 1: to me is not on Dak. Jerry, You've missed on
Speaker 1: too many picks this pass draft, nobody's ready popped. I
Speaker 1: just don't think Dallas has elite personal I think I
Speaker 1: look at Philadelphia, I look at Kansas City, I look
Speaker 1: at the Niners. I see elite Detroit. I don't see
Speaker 1: it with Dallas.
Speaker 2: Why I would say this one thing with Dallas the
Speaker 2: last three years winning twelve games. Obviously last year Dak
Speaker 2: had a career year. But their defense under Dan Quinn,
Speaker 2: there's a reason he became a hot head coaching candidate.
Speaker 2: They're really really good. At one point in time early
Speaker 2: in game, and felt like Baltimore was gonna rush for
Speaker 2: four hundred yards. It was insane, you know, it was crazy.
Speaker 2: And we say this a lot about Dallas. They're a
Speaker 2: great front runner because they get a lead and their
Speaker 2: defensive line is fast. I think we're learning. They're not
Speaker 2: very powerful, right, and you can run the ball right
Speaker 2: down your throat. And I understand passing the league everyone.
Speaker 2: These teams now have no problem obviously playing the Ravens,
Speaker 2: the Saints, all these teams. They're good running backs on
Speaker 2: all over the place. They will run it all day
Speaker 2: long on you until you can prove you can stop it.
Speaker 2: And when you're giving up five six yards to carry,
Speaker 2: there's no point to call passes. So did you think
Speaker 2: that was I know it was impressive. The last seven
Speaker 2: eight minutes. A little bit of a hollow comeback, that's
Speaker 2: what I think they hit. They hit an on side kick.
Speaker 2: It was just like John, I thought, the RAM does
Speaker 2: not reflect what I witnessed, right, Like.
Speaker 1: I thought the Rams niners. I thought the Rams played
Speaker 1: their ass off. They were hanging around the whole game.
Speaker 1: They were making big plays on third down. Listen, Jennings
Speaker 1: just is the best numbers receiver in football. Jenning's a
Speaker 1: He was a great college player at Tennessee. I mean
Speaker 1: they stole him in the sixth round and he just
Speaker 1: gets better every year. Like that kid just and he's
Speaker 1: a weird body type. Like there's just not a lot
Speaker 1: of massive, huge hands, huge length. He's just hard to defend.
Speaker 1: And the Rams don't have great corners. But I felt
Speaker 1: like Dallas sometimes you just get into these games and
Speaker 1: it's hard to ask your play especially if you physically
Speaker 1: dominated John, it'd be one thing off its trick plays
Speaker 1: or over the top. When you physically dominate Dallas for
Speaker 1: three quarters average nine yards of play, it's hard to
Speaker 1: ask your guys to bring their best stuff in the fourth.
Speaker 2: They feel small on defense. They just feel small. You know,
Speaker 2: one thing you saw with the Rams today. I don't
Speaker 2: know much about their linebackers, and they let Ernest Jones
Speaker 2: go for a reason. They felt good about some of
Speaker 2: the random guys they had. They were making play. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they had a lot of just tackles in the hole
Speaker 2: against the forty nine ers vaunted running game. Obviously, the
Speaker 2: Niners have Fred Warner, you see who do the Ravens
Speaker 2: have Rokwan Smith? You watch Dallas, Their linebacker plays bad
Speaker 2: and their defensive tackles clearly aren't that great. And I
Speaker 2: wouldn't call Micah exactly Reggie White against no run no.
Speaker 2: So it's like when you attack them, where does Micah
Speaker 2: kill you? When they're up twenty to ten in the
Speaker 2: third quarter, and he can just tee off on second
Speaker 2: and third and long. Well, they get down, they just
Speaker 2: get leaning on you. And it's happened two weeks in
Speaker 2: a row. It just feels like Dallas gets overwhelmed. It's
Speaker 2: crazy to say, but must win this week at New York.
Speaker 2: You start one to three. I like Dallas to be
Speaker 2: a playoff team this year, but after these two weeks, shit,
Speaker 2: I gotta reconsider.
Speaker 1: I watched every play of the Giants game. Now again,
Speaker 1: I don't buy DeShawn Watson, but Daniel Jones does not
Speaker 1: seem as nervous. He's throwing with confidence. Neighbors isn't better today? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Neighbors is an absolute bona fide number one. There is
Speaker 1: no forget developing. He's a number one in the league. Now,
Speaker 1: all their second, third, and fourth receivers feel slotted in
Speaker 1: the right spot. They got a lot of threes their
Speaker 1: offensive line. This is like you know in New York,
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers is going to get all the love if
Speaker 1: you pay attention to the Giants offensive lines actually playing
Speaker 1: and they put draft capital into it. They hit in
Speaker 1: a left tackle. So and I think we both agree
Speaker 1: that Brian Dables. I like him more than you do,
Speaker 1: but I think he's a clearly good I think he's
Speaker 1: a good offensive coach.
Speaker 2: I don't mind him as a head coach. I mean
Speaker 2: he approved a couple of years ago. He's even this year,
Speaker 2: Like it's not to me. They got more personnel issue
Speaker 2: than Brian Daball. Yeah, but I have a little emotional
Speaker 2: bit of a roller coaster, but it feels like he's
Speaker 2: calmed it down a little. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think Thursday Night's a real game. I would take
Speaker 1: Dallas to win it. But I think Thursday Night's a
Speaker 1: real game. And I think the years of Dallas. You know,
Speaker 1: for years, Big Bend just rolled over Cincinnati and Cleveland.
Speaker 1: You know, then Joe Burrow shows up and then Cleveland
Speaker 1: gets Baker. Now so okay, now those are real teams.
Speaker 1: I mean, for ten years, Big Ben just put down
Speaker 1: like three out of four or four out of four wins.
Speaker 1: And I feel like Dallas for years forty percent of
Speaker 1: Dax wins or Washington New York. Well, Washington's got a
Speaker 1: good staff. J is a little electric, He's got some stuff.
Speaker 1: The Giants aren't great, but they have a chance to
Speaker 1: win this home game. I feel like John, I feel
Speaker 1: like Dallas. Like the Steelers had this like eight year
Speaker 1: window of total lysfunction in Washington, New York, and Philadelphia
Speaker 1: was a little up and down Philadelphia. The Giants in
Speaker 1: Washington now feel formidable, at least formidable to me.
Speaker 2: Dallas too, like the Niners clearly had a Super Bowl
Speaker 2: window there where they just couldn't get over the hump
Speaker 2: a couple of times against Kansas City. And now it's
Speaker 2: gonna be they got their backs against the wall. Dallas
Speaker 2: had just get the monkey out their back get to
Speaker 2: the NFC Championship game. They had a home field advantage
Speaker 2: in a couple two of the last three years. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: That's over.
Speaker 2: So it's like and now I had been saying when
Speaker 2: you kind of look around, Belichick's got about seven million jobs.
Speaker 2: You can find him everywhere. I mean, this guy could
Speaker 2: be doing anything in the world. He's just watching Take
Speaker 2: twenty four to seven. I mean this, I thought Jacksonville
Speaker 2: was a team to keep an eye on. That they
Speaker 2: played Monday night. That thing could employ. That owner's got
Speaker 2: some money. The Cowboys come back to the forefront. If
Speaker 2: all of a sudden they lose on Thursday and this
Speaker 2: thing starts to get away from Mike, and I gotta
Speaker 2: change my tune because a couple of weeks ago, I
Speaker 2: was like, you know, Mike and Dak have such a
Speaker 2: good working relationship. It's going so well, but now you
Speaker 2: start losing. He doesn't have a contract. That conversation, don't
Speaker 2: you think is gonna get the fire's gonna get lit
Speaker 2: under it? I mean, Jerry, they by no means on
Speaker 2: what they've looked like last two weeks against obviously two
Speaker 2: talented teams, they didn't even look close. That's the scary part.
Speaker 2: So yeah, they're not a lock playoff team by any means. Clearly,
Speaker 2: I got it. I might be wrong on that one, so.
Speaker 1: I think in previous years you could have blamed McCarthy.
Speaker 1: I don't think this is all. I don't think this
Speaker 1: is Mike.
Speaker 2: But he but does he if they go eight to nine? Yeah,
Speaker 2: he doesn't have a contract. So it's like, and what
Speaker 2: are the Cowboys gonna do? Like, they're not gonna hire
Speaker 2: some Ben Johnson guy, are they? You know? Jerry? Because
Speaker 2: the thing is with Mike, say what you want is
Speaker 2: it's you're not going to upgrade with some coordinator. More
Speaker 2: likely over him, so you got it. It'd be Vrabel
Speaker 2: or Belichick. You'd almost have to get a proven name
Speaker 2: that you feel good about. There are really just a
Speaker 2: couple options for them.
Speaker 1: I would go with Rabel, who I think is a
Speaker 1: great coach, and I also think he doesn't need to
Speaker 1: dominate personnel. I think one of the things that really
Speaker 1: hurts when you watch New England play on Thursday against
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers and you go, Jesus Belichick handed girod Meo
Speaker 1: a mess. They have no players offensively those standalone games
Speaker 1: with New England. It's a reminder that Bill controlled personnel
Speaker 1: for seven years. Tennessee's got players, they just don't have
Speaker 1: a quarterback. Tennessee's got guys. You know, Will Levis just
Speaker 1: isn't it. It's time for this week's player I thought
Speaker 1: might give almost almost anything to redo his game, brought
Speaker 1: to you by Uber Eats. This week it's Caleb Williams.
Speaker 1: Hey an NFL season high three hundred and sixty three
Speaker 1: yards but two really costly interceptions against the Colts was
Speaker 1: this week's Uber eats Player of the Week. Get almost
Speaker 1: almost anything for game day, delivered with Uber eats, the
Speaker 1: official on demand delivery partner of the NFL order now
Speaker 1: Bears Colts. Bears lose to the Colts twenty one to sixteen,
Speaker 1: ugly game. So I mean Anthony Richardson went ten for
Speaker 1: twenty two picks and he won.
Speaker 2: So it is not pretty. I mean it was like
Speaker 2: an orgy performance yesterday in Michigan. It was a mess.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. This is incredible. Chicago had more
Speaker 1: yards a twenty sixteen to fifteen first down edge, dominates
Speaker 1: time of possessions, four for five.
Speaker 2: On fourth down.
Speaker 1: Caleb's thirty four to fifty two with a couple of touchdowns,
Speaker 1: but again no run game. I don't know what they are. Offensively,
Speaker 1: they're very Caleb Williams reliant and on deep balls, he's
Speaker 1: just not accurate, Like he's not. He can around, he
Speaker 1: can do stuff. But I say it again, I watched
Speaker 1: Boon Nicks today with an offensive coach. You know, we
Speaker 1: could acknowledge now that Steelers defense is fricking great. Okay,
Speaker 1: so bo neck struggled with it. I watched him today
Speaker 1: run past terror part Tampa. So again bo Nicks taking
Speaker 1: huge strides and you can tell exactly what Sean Payton
Speaker 1: wants Denver's offense to be you can see it. They're
Speaker 1: using bo Nicks's I don't know what the Bears aren't.
Speaker 1: They're just yards, they're just yards and plays they don't run.
Speaker 2: What are they.
Speaker 1: To me?
Speaker 2: Caleb stats were a little padded toward the end of
Speaker 2: the game. He was pretty bad. The first half was atrocious.
Speaker 2: Two things can be true because I think we see
Speaker 2: this with like Bryce Young and Andy Dalton. Situation is
Speaker 2: the situation for a young quarterback is not ideal in
Speaker 2: terms of the coaching around you, right, and some personnel.
Speaker 2: It's hard because we applauded the talent on the field,
Speaker 2: and then you're watching him. You go, well, the offensive
Speaker 2: line is not very good and like you said, they
Speaker 2: can't run the ball well. Running the ball helps a
Speaker 2: young quarterback, of course, so you know the Bear's history
Speaker 2: speaks for itself. But then you watch Caleb in individual plays,
Speaker 2: he feels a little overwhelmed slash. He's just out of source.
Speaker 2: He has not played well and there are basic layup
Speaker 2: throws and this goes to Bryce Young two that like,
Speaker 2: independent of the organization and independent of anything going on,
Speaker 2: he should be making and he's not. Like Anthony Richton
Speaker 2: is kind of clear might just be a disaster that
Speaker 2: might be a major problem for Indy. Indy, right, he
Speaker 2: just might be an inaccurate quarterback.
Speaker 1: He's a fifty He's a fifty percent completion guy with
Speaker 1: Shane Steichen, and I think their receivers are not that
Speaker 1: you know, they're good enough, Piers, they're good enough. He's
Speaker 1: a fifty percent completion quarterback.
Speaker 2: And it doesn't even feel close to the wide receiver
Speaker 2: or Caleb has these guys open. Maybe he's thinking too much.
Speaker 2: I think he feels sped up. You know, when you
Speaker 2: don't build confidence early, you start kind of overcompensating. You
Speaker 2: start thinking instead of just playing. The one thing he
Speaker 2: did a couple of years at USC, he just played. Yeah, right,
Speaker 2: just let it play. Now, he feels like everything he's
Speaker 2: kind of feeling out. He's running into sacks. He just
Speaker 2: everything looks out of whack. I mean, he doesn't, let's
Speaker 2: face it, given the hype, which I thought was mainly justified,
Speaker 2: it has been a disaster. And like, to me, when
Speaker 2: you watch that game, like the way he's playing equals
Speaker 2: coach get fired. That's what I thought, right, because you know,
Speaker 2: so it's like all those guys, given how good their
Speaker 2: division turns out to be. We knew that, but I
Speaker 2: mean Lafleur, what he's doing with Malik willis like what
Speaker 2: happens if you just gave Lafour Caleb Williams, Right, that's
Speaker 2: what you're talking to yourself about. If you're Ryan Poles,
Speaker 2: that to me is another team. And this is back
Speaker 2: to Dallas with Rabel, Ryan Poles, offensive lineman, tough guy
Speaker 2: like Vrabel makes a lot of sense in Chicago, a
Speaker 2: lot of sense if I'm Ryan Pohle. So all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, you start going eva Flus is in major trouble.
Speaker 2: He was in trouble coming into this season. Well, and
Speaker 2: now instead of being like, oh, you know, coming into
Speaker 2: the year, I pumped the brakes on everyone. You know,
Speaker 2: people were like ten to eleven wins. If they went
Speaker 2: nine to eight with a rookie quarterback, and they look promising,
Speaker 2: that'd be awesome. They look like a six win team
Speaker 2: right now. Colin Indianapolis was like historically poor back to
Speaker 2: back weeks on defense, Yeah, and they were kicking Caleb's
Speaker 2: ass toga yeah, And I get it's on the road,
Speaker 2: but man, that was if I was a Bears fan
Speaker 2: right now, I'd be pretty despondent because it's like, this
Speaker 2: is exactly why we never get excited, because it always
Speaker 2: turns out to be this.
Speaker 1: And remember, Green Bay is going to get Jordan Love back.
Speaker 1: They've got about a five this week, and they got
Speaker 1: a five year window where outside of Jordan Love, they're
Speaker 1: paying nobody. On offense, they have drafted and developed so
Speaker 1: well so and we know with Kevin O'Connell their offensive
Speaker 1: pieces are great. And Detroit finally today figured out we're
Speaker 1: a run team. Montgomery Gibbs had thirty five carries. So
Speaker 1: you're not winning in this league scoring twenty three points.
Speaker 1: This is the best offensive coach and the best offensive
Speaker 1: personnel you can do a Pro Bowl team with the
Speaker 1: NFC North. Just do a Pro Bowl team. I get
Speaker 1: all the coaches, I'll take flores on defense. You know,
Speaker 1: whoever you want an offense, you could compete in a
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl.
Speaker 2: And so the.
Speaker 1: Downside, you have a defensive coach a rookie quarterback and
Speaker 1: both are over their head at times. And it's so
Speaker 1: what's happening to this division is in twenty twenty four
Speaker 1: and beyond is the Bears have to score twenty seven
Speaker 1: to win some of these games. That's just the reality
Speaker 1: of it.
Speaker 2: I just pulled up their schedule. I mean I read
Speaker 2: it the mccaskeys. I don't know if they pull the
Speaker 2: trigger super early, but the should argue if they lose
Speaker 2: these next two games at home Rams Panthers.
Speaker 1: They're not beating the Rams because are getting healthier and
Speaker 1: the Panthers today with Andy Dalton, have a pulse.
Speaker 2: So if all of a sudden you're one and four
Speaker 2: with back to back losses at home to those two teams,
Speaker 2: do you just kind of pull the trigger and just
Speaker 2: start You're new? And that's this gets back to Caleb.
Speaker 2: This is why start pick your coach last year instead
Speaker 2: of having a guy come in on the hot seat.
Speaker 2: This is the dysfunction. This is what Bryce went through.
Speaker 1: It's just okay, here's the problem with the interim coach stuff.
Speaker 1: Let's say you're one in six and you go with
Speaker 1: Shane Waldron and he goes five hundred the rest of
Speaker 1: her way, and then the guys like him, and then
Speaker 1: the locker room loves him. The media jumps in and
Speaker 1: Shane Waldron nothing against him, But he's not Bobby Slowick.
Speaker 1: He's he's not Brian Flores. I am so against the
Speaker 1: interim thing because you've seen this, We've seen this twenty
Speaker 1: times as adults. Is it's like in college you always
Speaker 1: hire the coordinator. And nothing against Michigan football, and they
Speaker 1: deserve the W yesterday, their D line, just in gold
Speaker 1: USC's O line with freshmen and sophomores everywhere. But in
Speaker 1: the end, that coach from Michigan would not have been
Speaker 1: a top five candidate any other big job and so
Speaker 1: and that's okay, he's a Michigan guy. But if you
Speaker 1: bail on Eberflus and Waldron goes five hundred, you're hiring him,
Speaker 1: and maybe he would work, but I don't think he'd
Speaker 1: be a candidate otherwise.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's to me. If it's you know,
Speaker 2: some of these crazy owners, Eberflus would be in major
Speaker 2: like you would be like, no chance he makes it
Speaker 2: to Halloween on this bace. But given the mccaskey's more
Speaker 2: than likely they just ride it out. He gets canned.
Speaker 2: But it's it is not gone. Well, I would say
Speaker 2: no team had more hype, rightfully, So you get two
Speaker 2: top ten picks, you get this quarterback, and they have
Speaker 2: looked lifeless. They really have, and some of it to me,
Speaker 2: I think, listen, I'm hard as anyone on coaches, but
Speaker 2: individual players, when you're in a position and the guy's open,
Speaker 2: you have to make the pass. I mean the difference
Speaker 2: between Bryce Young, some of these guys coming out to
Speaker 2: Bryce Young's defense, like, this is the NFL and if
Speaker 2: you can't make basic passes, there are fifty two other
Speaker 2: guys in the locker room where ninety percent of your
Speaker 2: roster is not on guaranteed contracts. They don't give a
Speaker 2: shit about his feelings. We're trying to win. I'm laying
Speaker 2: on the lead great today and today Andy Dalton comes.
Speaker 2: He looks like Joe Bontana. He looked incredible. So I think, listen,
Speaker 2: we can It's easy to rip on the on the
Speaker 2: David Tepper in the organization and they've earned a lot
Speaker 2: of that, but can we just admit today like Bryce
Speaker 2: Young has been one of the has had one of
Speaker 2: the worst I don't know, fifteen game stretches we've ever seen. Right,
Speaker 2: Like I was in the car the other day when
Speaker 2: he got benched. I'm flipping around the radio. I hear
Speaker 2: rich Gannon say they hadn't had a lead for ten
Speaker 2: straight games, hadn't had a lead, They'd won two games
Speaker 2: on last second field goals. Hadn't that a lead today,
Speaker 2: Andy Dalton, they had a lead immediate, Like, think how
Speaker 2: hard that is to not just have a seven to
Speaker 2: nothing lead in one game? They had count and clearly
Speaker 2: part of it him and the difference of like Caleb,
Speaker 2: Caleb has physical attributes, Bryce just doesn't. Like that's just
Speaker 2: a five to ten guy that can't move and has
Speaker 2: an average arm. Like that, there's a chance and this
Speaker 2: happens in sports sometimes at every level. He's just bad.
Speaker 2: Maybe he's just not good enough. Good guy, tries hard,
Speaker 2: not good enough, Andy Dalton, up and down career. He's
Speaker 2: an NFL player, Like we can look back in five years.
Speaker 2: The story today that people were thinking about trading for
Speaker 2: Bryce Young. I thought it was kind of crazy. He's
Speaker 2: the number one overall pick. Now. I understand they wouldn't
Speaker 2: trade much, but he makes a lot. Andy Dalton like that,
Speaker 2: that's a backup Sam Darnold last year. That's a backup.
Speaker 2: If I'm gonna pay five six million dollars, that's how
Speaker 2: much Bryce makes. I better feel pretty good about my backup.
Speaker 2: Like those guys play like you put Bryce Young in
Speaker 2: a game right now, you're guaranteed to loose, guaranteed to
Speaker 2: look like that's I'm watching some of the Bears wide
Speaker 2: receivers Tyson Badgett like they had some success. Like if
Speaker 2: you're DJ Moore, like get me the ball, Like what
Speaker 2: are we doing? Wide receiver? Sometimes turn on the guy
Speaker 2: before the coaching staff and the fans. You know, they
Speaker 2: can be a little divish, rightfully, so they used to
Speaker 2: get in the ball. The ball starts flying over their head.
Speaker 2: This is just uncharted territory for Caleb. You know, it's
Speaker 2: just like any player. I mean, you become a rookie.
Speaker 2: You got to the hype, you get the money. Think
Speaker 2: how much easier it was for Trevor he was in Jacksonville.
Speaker 2: Then be fans they have. I mean this Chicago, this
Speaker 2: is tough. It's gonna be a long week there. I
Speaker 2: can't imagine sports sook radio, the articles. I mean, the
Speaker 2: open locker room for the press. This is is welcome
Speaker 2: to the NFL.
Speaker 1: Rook Well, I had said before the season, let's go
Speaker 1: to Tampa Bay Denver Klobbersom twenty six to seven, and
Speaker 1: I had sent In the first couple of weeks, I said,
Speaker 1: listen bow Nick's opening against Mike McDonald, the Seahawks crowd
Speaker 1: corners and a pro and Gino Smith.
Speaker 2: That's a bad open.
Speaker 1: Then we go next week it's the Steelers, and it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is a real defense. Go ask the Chargers today.
Speaker 1: Today Ampa defense, that's dinged up Vitavilla at the back end.
Speaker 1: Bon Nicks forty seven rushing yards twenty five to thirty
Speaker 1: six Denver bloom Out wasn't competitive second straight week. I'll
Speaker 1: say this, I'm not anti Baker. Second straight week he
Speaker 1: was really rough on third down. He was just not
Speaker 1: moving the chains.
Speaker 2: Off the awful interception today on the side of.
Speaker 1: Thy Yeah, Baker is off. And again second straight week
Speaker 1: they couldn't make crucial plays on third down. But when
Speaker 1: I watched bone next today, this is what Sean Payton
Speaker 1: kept texting me. It's like, you know it's gonna be bumpy,
Speaker 1: but he moves you and I talked about this. He
Speaker 1: moves much better than people think.
Speaker 2: I'm not.
Speaker 1: You know, It's like Jalen Hurts isn't fast, but he's elusive.
Speaker 1: Bone Nicks is not quite as elusive. But he's kind
Speaker 1: of quick, like he can get to the corner. And
Speaker 1: I'll say this again, they're not babying him. Remember Big
Speaker 1: Ben's first year with Pittsburgh, he'd throw like sixteen times
Speaker 1: a game, even to the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: It was like Michigan.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they just for protecting him. Shawn's I'm not protecting him.
Speaker 1: He threw it like forty some times. Against the Steelers,
Speaker 1: he threw thirty six times.
Speaker 2: Today.
Speaker 1: They're running an offense that you would run with Geno Smith.
Speaker 1: They don't care. And I said before the season, all
Speaker 1: these young quarterbacks, Caleb Jaden, they all have defensive coaches,
Speaker 1: Drake May, Sean Payton. I think the development of what
Speaker 1: this kid is doing is I'm watching him. He made
Speaker 1: a leap today, John, he looked like a grown up.
Speaker 2: Yeah to me, if when you can run the ball
Speaker 2: and your defense plays well, Sean Payton like, he's gonna
Speaker 2: learn what I can call and what I can't call
Speaker 2: for this player and what he's comfortable with. And the
Speaker 2: only way you learn that is through going through it.
Speaker 2: Like you said, Seattle looks freaking good. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: and obviously Pittsburgh's defense is elite, but today felt like
Speaker 2: the Buccaneers spent all week looking at their record and
Speaker 2: looking at the Broncos record and were like, yeah, we're
Speaker 2: not really going to pay attention. We'll see on game day.
Speaker 2: And they just got boat raced. And this is the
Speaker 2: thing with the NFL. All of a sudden, you zero
Speaker 2: and two, zero to three. Yeah, teams do not want
Speaker 2: to get embarrassed. Bob had that awesome play with his legs.
Speaker 2: You don't turn the ball over. That helps because he's
Speaker 2: been throwing the ball to the other team. I mean
Speaker 2: he's had some passes that also did not get picked
Speaker 2: that should have been. He just looked like in complete control.
Speaker 2: And you have to wonder, mature guy, a little older,
Speaker 2: maybe his speed up process, Like maybe we don't have
Speaker 2: to wait till December. Maybe within three or four weeks,
Speaker 2: he's gonna look more comfortable now they're talent around them.
Speaker 2: When they play the better team. I think they play
Speaker 2: the Chiefs next week, he's gonna get overwhelmed at times.
Speaker 2: Look at Sean's quotes. He had a quote last week
Speaker 2: like I feel great about it. We're unfazed. That to
Speaker 2: me speaks to when you get these veteran head coaches
Speaker 2: like what's Eberflu's gonna be able to say, you know,
Speaker 2: I can lean on by seven playoff appearances, like he can't.
Speaker 2: He can't say any of that. And that's where Sean everyone,
Speaker 2: we're gonna be okay, even though, like, what do you
Speaker 2: think best case is for them this year? Seven eight wins?
Speaker 2: That's best case? Listen.
Speaker 1: I thought they would People said they were five to
Speaker 1: five and a half. I thought they would get eight.
Speaker 1: They don't have a consistent pass rush. Bo is still young,
Speaker 1: They're in a tough division. The charters and the chiefs
Speaker 1: are really good, so you know, their schedules pretty damn formidable.
Speaker 1: I think if they go I think, if you get
Speaker 1: to seven and you week, yeah, if you get to seven.
Speaker 1: Because I thought they were one of the better over teams.
Speaker 1: I've always said, I think they're receivers. I think they
Speaker 1: have more talent on the perimeter. But I think they
Speaker 1: have more talent on the perimeter. I thought there did
Speaker 1: a running back make a hell of a run today
Speaker 1: around the corner. He did a I forget the name
Speaker 1: of the player, sorry about that. I just think Denver's
Speaker 1: got a little more juice offensively that people give him
Speaker 1: credit for. But I just like and Bo had some
Speaker 1: bad throws. He had a really he missed on a couple.
Speaker 2: But I just I like what I see.
Speaker 1: First of all, he's older, he's married, sixty one, starts,
Speaker 1: the offensive coach pretty damn good receivers and backs this.
Speaker 1: I think he's got an advantage that the market isn't
Speaker 1: recognid between the college starts, the maturity body. Had five
Speaker 1: coordinators in five years in college. This kid's seen everything.
Speaker 1: I just now he may be really close to his ceiling,
Speaker 1: John Like, this may be, you know, he may be
Speaker 1: seventy percent of the ceiling. But I see an athletic
Speaker 1: guy who's accurate, coachable, gets rid of the ball quickly.
Speaker 1: If they can improve their offensive line, I think you can.
Speaker 2: You can.
Speaker 1: This is a wildcard team potentially over the next few years.
Speaker 2: Well, let's face it. We talked about this last week.
Speaker 2: Twelve wins for hardball, and then you're watching the first
Speaker 2: half the day, you're like, God, this this classic hardball.
Speaker 2: Then all of a sudden, that foot, that ankle, whatever's
Speaker 2: going on with Justin Herbert and the way it kind
Speaker 2: of like did he reinjure that plan of fascia? You know,
Speaker 2: because he already had the ankle. That that is extremely
Speaker 2: and that once he goes out, they got no shot,
Speaker 2: right right, But that that is one of the biggest
Speaker 2: wildcards in the NFL because if he's just in and
Speaker 2: out of a lineup, if he's fully healthy, they probably
Speaker 2: win today. And I feel pretty confident like this classic
Speaker 2: Harball team eleven twelve win lock. Then the moment he
Speaker 2: starts limping around, You're like, did someone fall on him?
Speaker 2: And they show the replay, No, you just reinjured it
Speaker 2: stepping handing the ball off. You're like, Oh, this is
Speaker 2: something that is just not gonna go away clearly, which
Speaker 2: is scary because I love watching Jim Harball when he
Speaker 2: has like a C plus B minus roster saying bring
Speaker 2: it on everybody, and he was doing it again today.
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you, I think we should do an
Speaker 1: award every week for coach of the Week. So Green
Speaker 1: Bay tags Tennessee thirty.
Speaker 2: To fourteen, crushes him.
Speaker 1: Matt Lafleur on scripted stuff. Now you and I know
Speaker 1: first couples the first quarters scripted, Green Bay gets seventeen
Speaker 1: points quickly, that's scripted for Malik willis malite. They one
Speaker 1: hundred ninety passing one hundred eighty eight rushing. The kid
Speaker 1: goes thirteen for nineteen, a touchdown, no pick, seven different targets.
Speaker 1: This is a young team. It's not like he can
Speaker 1: rely on a veteran third down receiver or he's got
Speaker 1: a Devonte Adams. These are all kids. These are twenty
Speaker 1: three year old receivers. For them to take Malik Willis.
Speaker 1: I'm watching today and I'm like, they had almost four
Speaker 1: hundred yards offense and on the scripted stuff early. That's
Speaker 1: what really worries me about Chicago. They're horrible, and they're
Speaker 1: terrible on their first three series. It's like, that's the
Speaker 1: scripted stuff Green Bay. I mean, I'm Matt Lafleur. You know,
Speaker 1: for years and years it was always understood that Aaron
Speaker 1: and him kind of almost shared offensive duties. Like Aaron's
Speaker 1: gonna do some of his own stuff, and he'd earned that.
Speaker 2: I'm good with that.
Speaker 1: What he's done with Malik Willis, I mean I'll say
Speaker 1: this one year ago. I mean, good God, Tennessee got
Speaker 1: rid of I mean they bailed on him. I mean,
Speaker 1: you almost always just keep a guy, make him a backup.
Speaker 1: They didn't even want to give him a shot to start.
Speaker 1: They thought will Levis was an upgrade. Matt Leflor is
Speaker 1: a great football coach.
Speaker 2: That's my take. They traded him to a team that
Speaker 2: they were playing three weeks later. I mean that you
Speaker 2: just never know, right, I mean, if you traded into
Speaker 2: a team that you might have to see and they
Speaker 2: probably never even thought twice about it and within two
Speaker 2: if you would have told me two weeks ago that
Speaker 2: Malik Willis looks like everything we thought Anthony Richardson was
Speaker 2: going to look like, that's the crazy part. I mean
Speaker 2: today he's running around, He's obviously been much more accurate
Speaker 2: than I think anyone anticipated. Give him the game ball
Speaker 2: last week he gives it to the entire team. It
Speaker 2: really is people, you know. Mike McDaniel is a media favorite,
Speaker 2: like he's got Schrager loves them and some of the
Speaker 2: guys love him, and I get it. He's a nice guy.
Speaker 2: Might be the most overrated coach in the NFL. I
Speaker 2: mean that, Look, he's got is gonna wear thin when
Speaker 2: he goes five and twelve. But Lafleur does not get
Speaker 2: discussed nearly as much. And part of that, like you said,
Speaker 2: get a little overwhelmed by Aaron Rodgers. Aaron had been
Speaker 2: gone now for a while. Yeah, Jordan Love threw thirty
Speaker 2: three touchdowns. Jordan Love gets hurt on a night game
Speaker 2: halfway across the world, comes back and wins two games
Speaker 2: with a guy that no other team probably would have
Speaker 2: traded for, and pretty convincingly. I mean today they beat
Speaker 2: the shit out of him on the road. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean it's one thing, okay at home playing a bead.
Speaker 2: Then you go on the road and win a game
Speaker 2: with a team that knows this player, like all the
Speaker 2: defensive players, who do you think they had been seeing
Speaker 2: for three years as a scout team quarterback And that
Speaker 2: thing was of all the games to day and that
Speaker 2: thing truly was not close. It was over fast. And
Speaker 2: I think Lafloor, I don't want to just throw out
Speaker 2: the elite status. You gotta win in the playoffs. Yeah
Speaker 2: they've he did last year though, and easily gonna beat
Speaker 2: the Night Like I think Lafloor's easily one of the
Speaker 2: best young coach. I mean the way McVeigh, Kyle, Kevin O'Connell,
Speaker 2: we got to include Lafleur and we got to kick
Speaker 2: Mike out for right now he hasn't won an important
Speaker 2: game ever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know the air thing is we know this
Speaker 1: in college. John it's recruiting and development. Saban did both,
Speaker 1: Urban meyerd both right. There are not a lot of
Speaker 1: guys in this.
Speaker 2: League that I mean.
Speaker 1: Kevin O'Connell is developing a really talented guy who all
Speaker 1: of us always had a feeling. I think Darnald can
Speaker 1: actually play if he didn't have a dysfunctional team. Nobody
Speaker 1: thought Malik Willis could play. Mean Jordan Low, one of
Speaker 1: my most trusted general managers, was like, I wouldn't draft
Speaker 1: Jordan Love. He's like, there's just you know, and this
Speaker 1: is somebody with a ring. I'm watching Malik Willis in
Speaker 1: this transformation. This guy is one of the best developers
Speaker 1: of talent. By the way, That's why this Green Bay
Speaker 1: story is so much fun because the whole team's twenty
Speaker 1: four years old.
Speaker 2: On offense, well, how did Andy Reid become a legend
Speaker 2: before he ever won a Super Bowl? Because he could
Speaker 2: coach that position and no matter when McNabb would get hurt,
Speaker 2: he could play with anybody and they would still make
Speaker 2: the playoffs. He could take a washed up Jeff Garcia,
Speaker 2: he could take a Jay Feely, he could take Mike
Speaker 2: Vick from prison. I mean, he could do anything. When
Speaker 2: you can coach that position. It's my conversation with Brian Flores.
Speaker 2: If he was an offensive coach right now, we'd be
Speaker 2: talking about him like one of the best offensive coordinators
Speaker 2: we've ever seen. But he coaches defense. But even that
Speaker 2: his defense has been so good, You're like, just like,
Speaker 2: can he deal with the quarterback? Like he doesn't even
Speaker 2: seem to like those humans, right, so he doesn't even
Speaker 2: if I'm an owner, how does my head coach handle
Speaker 2: that guy? Say what you want about Tomlin, Like he
Speaker 2: can just massage that position. He's not coaching them on
Speaker 2: their fundamentals on a daily basis, but he can handle
Speaker 2: that situation is weird and he's handled it seamlessly because
Speaker 2: that's Mike Tomlin's go to strength. Lafour clearly he's pretty
Speaker 2: level headed guy. But can coach that position? Took Jordan Love,
Speaker 2: Like you said that your GM wasn't alone. A lot
Speaker 2: of people wouldn't.
Speaker 1: Drafted them, by the way, John the first round. Jordan
Speaker 1: Love the first year he started was awful. His first
Speaker 1: five weeks he was the best quarterback in the league
Speaker 1: by week fourteen.
Speaker 2: The other thing it does is it allows you to
Speaker 2: do something like they just did. They traded nothing for
Speaker 2: a backup quarterback who makes no money, and you can
Speaker 2: win games when you're fifty million dollars quarterback. Why rush
Speaker 2: Jordan Love back this week? I don't know who they're playing,
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter. You can take another You're not in
Speaker 2: a rush. What happens when you get in positions when
Speaker 2: your backup quarterbacks the troit You kind of force that
Speaker 2: guy and as a snowball effect, he reinjures his knee.
Speaker 2: If I am given Jordan Love zero rush, Malik Willis
Speaker 2: for sure is getting another start. If Jordan Love says
Speaker 2: I'm not ninety nine percent, what the hell's the rush?
Speaker 2: I mean, you just just play like this. It actually
Speaker 2: gives your team a different pitch, forces other guys. Let
Speaker 2: this guy come back fully healthy. If they're able to
Speaker 2: make the playoffs, which they sure look like one now,
Speaker 2: and have Jordan Love miss a month, what an incredible accomplishment.
Speaker 2: I mean, seriously, that is awesome. Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: The no ownership doesn't hurt him because Mark Murphy keeps
Speaker 1: getting the offensive position in the quarterback right. Shit, they've
Speaker 1: got they got Farv right, they got Rogers right, they
Speaker 1: got Jordan Love right. And Malik Willis looks like the
Speaker 1: steel the in league steal of any acquisition. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's the most important position. They give up nothing for him.
Speaker 1: It is one of the great heists. If this kid
Speaker 1: goes on a three game streak, it's one of the heists.
Speaker 2: Of the season. Yeah, definitely, without question.
Speaker 1: John Middlecock, can I say.
Speaker 2: One thing before you get out of here, because you
Speaker 2: were on this and it's been so evident yesterday, I
Speaker 2: love the Pac twelve. It obviously died and his conference
Speaker 2: realignment felt weird. But watching these matchups all over the country.
Speaker 2: I mean, Michigan USC would be awesome no matter what.
Speaker 2: But Oklahoma hosting Tennessee, even Utah playing Oklahoma State this conference,
Speaker 2: Colorado playing Baylor last night. Great realignment from It's not
Speaker 2: quite the NFL because the talent is not the same
Speaker 2: when you're nineteen twenty years old. Not every gain as
Speaker 2: a pro College football is better off in terms of
Speaker 2: the matchups on a weekly basis with this conference real.
Speaker 1: Lined, John, I always fell I've been a college football fan.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm an old guy for a long time.
Speaker 1: My biggest knock on it was the lack of great games.
Speaker 1: There's three or four weekends a year in college football
Speaker 1: and you look up and you're like, god, I hope
Speaker 1: USC Michigan terms out to be a good game. There's
Speaker 1: nothing on this damn schedule. It's like Tennessee Oklahoma, you know,
Speaker 1: and then you'll get surprise games like Colorado Baytor became great,
Speaker 1: but nobody was sitting around waiting for Illinois. Nebraska became
Speaker 1: great on Friday ONFS one or Fox. So, I mean,
Speaker 1: stuff becomes great. But they always had a big game problem.
Speaker 1: Well now I even watched you know, like Washington Northwestern.
Speaker 1: It's like I've never seen them play. Just let me
Speaker 1: go watch them play, you know.
Speaker 2: So it's like to me, Stanford Syracuse I thought was
Speaker 2: kind of entertaining.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, so listen. I just I'm one of
Speaker 1: those guys that there's a lot of things I love about.
Speaker 1: I'm not anti tradition. There's a lot of old Stuff'm
Speaker 1: peanut butter and jelly is my favorite snack. Like I
Speaker 1: eat like a you know, like I'm not a real
Speaker 1: experimental guy on some things in my life. But in sports,
Speaker 1: we too often fall for stuff that's just not that interesting.
Speaker 1: Like I think baseball should go down to one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty games, start the playoffs August fifth and this
Speaker 1: past weekend, and we'd watch the games. Like, I don't
Speaker 1: think anybody says Stamp, you know his historians that love
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty two games. Most of us just
Speaker 1: can't get through that many games. Its double the NBA season.
Speaker 1: So I just think we fall in love with the
Speaker 1: history and the romance. But I always say this. ESPN
Speaker 1: created a channel called ESPN Classic. Nobody freaking watched. Nobody watched.
Speaker 1: It's like one of those things that we talk about,
Speaker 1: something more than his reality. Like I like the Manning Cast,
Speaker 1: but it has you know, let's say a million viewers.
Speaker 1: Joe Buck and Aateman have eighteen. But if you went
Speaker 1: to Twitter, you'd think everybody was watching the Manning cast
Speaker 1: and nobody was watching the game. Now that's the inverse
Speaker 1: of what's true. Nobody cared about cal Organ State. I'm
Speaker 1: watching Oklahoma State Utah.
Speaker 2: I'm like, it just looks new. Yeah, it does, it's fun,
Speaker 2: it is it worked, Yeah, I mean it worked.
Speaker 1: John Middlecoff podcast is three and out.
Speaker 2: Great job, buddy, see you Colin.
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