Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - CFP Semifinals Reactions and Teams to Keep an Eye On Entering the Playoffs

Episode Date: January 3, 2023

Geoff and Gabe are back to break down the most exciting CFP semifinal weekend to date, including the news that Jim Harbaugh may be eyeing a jump to the bigs, plus conversations about Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Justin Herbert, and all of the teams who are getting hot at just the right time.On Moving the Line, Geoff tells you what Ron Rivera was (or wasn't) thinking this week, and Gabe asks some tough questions about MVP candidates.Producer's note: This episode was recorded prior to Damar Hamlin's injury on Monday night. The entire team at Geoff Schwartz is Smarter Than You will keep Damar in our hearts as we wait for updates on his progress. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What a joke, man. I don't understand, Jeff. You're like Mr. Pac-12. Put aside the fan. Put aside the fan. Stop that shit. Put it aside. Give me real analysis.

Make me smarter on your stupid-ass podcast. What the? Why can't he recruit a couple guys who play defense? Just tackle. USC lost Tulane. This is the best college football player since Tim Tebow. He's on the team. There aren't a few guys who can just tackle to help him out.

Oh, God bless. God bless you Tulane. It's Tuesday, January 3rd. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Good goodwin this is jeff schwartz a smart new powered by the varsity podcast network gabe did you know the pack 12 is three and one in bowl games and the big pack teams are oh and two in bowl games did you know that

no just let me know both just cripp crippling losses by both UCLA and USC. Yeah, well, good luck watching Oregon. I work for Pac-12 Radio, and I'm going to get fired for some USC tweets. My boss just texted me, too. I'm going to get in trouble. I'm telling you right now. Well, I don't want to see you get fired over USC. I do think maybe we could talk about the guys who are calling defensive plays

or just teaching tackling on the defensive staff. What's going on, dude? So here's my grand takeaway, though. So here's my real takeaway. USC has to fire Alex Grinch. You don't have a choice now. You have to get rid of him. That's a forward pass, I think.

You have to get rid of him like you don't have a choice like you can't keep doing the same thing again with with alex grinch anymore like this is proven now you you you gotta you gotta move on remember the the question that got zach wilson in a lot of trouble and have ultimately led to the end of his jets career when they they asked him after a horrible performance, you know, do you feel like, you know, you're kind of letting down the defensive side of the ball? Do you feel like you're not really holding up your end of the bargain? They're playing good game and you guys just can't do anything. And he got like testy about it. What, like, how do you let Caleb Williams go to waste like this? I don't know.

I don't know. This is like, oh, the football gods are shining on this. This USC hater, Jeff Schwartz. I mean, this is like I just don't know how I don't know how Lincoln Riley brings back out. I don't know how you do that. How many of these? How many of these guys are going to be, you know, able to tackle?

Is it going to be a lot of them? We're going to get some five-star defensive players. What's going on? That's the problem, man. Like that's the problem. I don't think it changes. They had like seven guys who looked like a number one receiver.

None of them, by the way, are the number one receiver. Addison wasn't even playing a whole bunch of other guys, including Jerry Rice's kids, showed up and looked like first round picks. They score 40 plus. Caleb looked like the best player in the world. This game should have been over like five different times, including a couple times in the first quarter. They just they can't play defense in any kind of real way. I'm just repeating myself.

I have nothing smart to add to this. This is just brutal. I mean, there's nothing smart to add to it. Caleb Williams is incredible. He played great. There's just no help. There's no help. There's no help whatsoever around him.

My overriding thing is I don't know how Grinch survives this. Well, I'm not here to call for people getting fired. I'm also not defending. Again, UCLA and USC, 0-2 in bowl games. Okay, you made that up. I root for UCLA, though, so I kind of do feel call for people getting fired. I'm also not defending. Again, UCLA and USC, 0-2 in bowl games. Okay, you made that point. I root for UCLA, though, so I kind of do feel bad for the Bruins. But I'm sure the Pac-12 doesn't care. UCLA sucks, Jeff.

Let's focus on the games that mattered because the Cotton Bowl and whatever the hell UCLA played in or your Oregon Ducks, that doesn't matter. Everyone's here to hear your take on Georgia versus TCU. Two games that might have been even more entertaining than that USC game we just had to live through. You know, the college football playoff has not always delivered drama. It did this past weekend, including Ohio State missing a field goal as we struck a new year. Very dramatic. Before we get into the losers in the future of a few of the key quarterbacks

and coaches, what's your matchup prediction for Georgia TCU? Is this going to be a game worth watching? Well, it's going to be worth watching. TCU did an incredible job, obviously, winning that game. But here's the thing about that game that I think is so fascinating, Gabe. So Michigan scored 45 points in offense. So Michigan scored 45 points in offense, which is a lot of points in offense, right? They also allowed two TCU pick sixes.

So 45 points minus the 14. But also you can look at it this way, where if they don't throw one of those interceptions, maybe the 45 is now 52. If they don't throw the other one, maybe it's 59 now, right? And they had two times inside the two-yard other one, maybe it's 59 now, right? And they had two times inside the two-yard line, they didn't score a touchdown,

right? The fourth and two and the fumble on fourth and one. So, like, to me, I think TCU kind of had everything work well for them. And here's the thing about why that's cool for college football. For a team like Oregon, right? And you root for USC, I root for Oregon. We're done laughing

about USC. But, like, I think? And you root for USC, I root for Oregon. We're done laughing about USC. But I think we see ourselves in TCU, right? A team that doesn't have the amount of star players as Michigan, Ohio State, and Georgia. And we see ourselves as, okay, if we do the right things, right? We're well-coached. We have explosive offense. We make enough plays on defense.

We can be in a championship game too. That's my takeaway from TCU. Now, when a 12-team playoff changes that dynamic, TCU most likely is not in a championship game too. Like that's my, that's my takeaway from TCU. Now when a 12 team playoff changes that dynamic, TCU most likely is not in the championship game in a 12 team playoff, but in a 14 playoff, they absolutely are. The issue is Ohio State kind of met its match physically in Ohio State, like the, the, the, the quarterback in Stroud, his best game of his career and the wide receivers, like they kind of met their – this is not TCU.

TCU has Johnson. They have Max Duggan who can run a little bit. But, you know, the – I think Georgia, that was the time to get them was in that game. And I feel like there's a reason they're 14-point favorites or 13-point favorites. Like they should handle business against TCU. But it doesn't – to me, it doesn't dissuade what we've seen happen so far with what TCU has done.

Are we ready to start throwing Max Duggan into that same category with a lot of names that you like to poo-poo? But I'll mention names like Tua and Tebow and Vince young and colt mccoy at times like these guys here like nah he's imperfect and i don't know what his what his pro future looks like but dude this guy why would you bet against him aren't we aren't we starting to wonder if maybe he's in that group uh yeah he he could be in the group that's why this sport to me is like so awesome because you know there's there's just like, you get these stories of these players that aren't really going to be good professionals maybe,

but just are great in college football, right? They're great in this setting. They're great when they're allowed to improvise and be nuts. Like in the NFL for quarterback, you have to be good in the pocket first. College football, you sort of don't like really need to be. I don't know.

You just like be a running quarterback. You can make plays on the run. You can beat ugly throws and whatnot. So I love this sport, man. And we have the Rose Bowls. We're recording this now as well. The Rose Bowl is my favorite bowl game of all. It's always my favorite bowl game.

This is the last iteration of the Rose Bowl, too, because of the 12-team playoff. We will not see this anymore. We have the Pac-10 champ, Pac-12 champ in Utah. Now they're playing Penn State because Ohio State wasteam playoff. We will not see this anymore. We have the Pac-10 champ, Pac-12 champ in Utah. Now they're playing Penn State because Ohio State was in the playoff. Michigan was also in the playoff. So they're not playing the traditional number one team. But nonetheless, you get Penn State, Utah in the Rose Bowl.

And so we're going to lose this part of college football going into the 12-team playoff, but we'll get kind of more competitive playoffs, I think. The parity, look, the NIL and the transfer portal football going to 12 team playoff, but we'll get kind of more competitive playoffs. I think it's the parodies. Look, the NIL and the transfer portal has made better parity for, for everyone, right?

TC us 12, 13 transfers, USC this year, all the transfers they have. It's, it's given, you know, a lot of, a lot of opportunity for,

for transfers and, and for kind of one year turnarounds. Okay. So then that leads to the big speculation, at least Monday by by tuesday when a lot of people click play on this things could have evolved but one of the guys who might be ready to cash out who kind of capitalized on on the first couple of years of a very different college football landscape got his team to the playoff two times in a row beat ohio state finally

but now it looks like jim harbaugh might be on the move to the NFL, perhaps the Broncos, we'll see. Do you think now's the right time for him to say, yeah, I think I'm out of here? Okay, so this is a great question. I don't know if it is – you have to consider first, let's talk about him as a Michigan coach, okay? He's made the playoff two years in a row.

He's won the conference two years or has beat Ohio State two years in a row. He's lost the last six bowl playoff games that he's been in. He's not good in these kind of prepare. And the reason why, by the way, is when you have a month to prepare, a grinder like Harbaugh is going to spend that month just in his own head trying to outthink himself. It's the way it is. In college football, I feel like that happens all the time in ballgames.

He's just going to outthink himself. He's just grinding away in the film room, trying to find plays, gets the ballgame, outthinks himself. I think he's better week to week. I think that's why Michigan at times struggles in the ballgame. I don't think they were particularly well-coached in offense against TCU. So if you look at Harbaugh and you think, okay, realistically now, not maybe what he's going to think, but what I'm going to think,

what I'm going to say, Michigan's probably maxed out, right? Like what are they doing now? Are they winning a title anytime soon? Sure, you make the playoff if you can, but realistically, probably not. Probably not, okay? He's beat Ohio State twice. He's won the big, like there's nothing more for him to do at Michigan.

Now, of course, he's a Michigan man. He's a legend there. But look, he moved from San Diego to Stanford to the Niners. Like he's been willing to move after five or six years at some place. Boom, I made the place good. I'm going somewhere else.

So I think from that perspective of like, okay, well, I'm not sure there's much left for him to do at Michigan. He might not think that way. He might think, okay, next year we'll get him. Next year, it's totally fine. He's made the playoffs two years ago. I get why he would think that. To be in Ohio State again, two years ago, I get why he would think all that.

I get that. But to me, looking from the outside in, I feel like they're maxed out. He's done the best job he can do in Michigan, and now it's time to move it along. However, Gabe, he's not going to Denver, okay? Him and Russell Wilson are not working together. Sorry. And they have no draft picks and no

cap space. Like, he's gonna try to find a place with a quarterback in place or the ability to get a quarterback very quickly. And there's not a lot of options for that right now in the NFL where there's like a, you know, I think everyone who wanted a job or wants a job, Sean Payton, Jim Harbaugh,

was rooting for the Chargers to not make the playoffs because that would have been the job with Justin Herbert where you would have like leapt over or walked over broken glass to get that job, right? You would have gone over, I want Justin Herbert. I want to get this job. And the Chargers do have talent. And we're seeing actually some of that talent now as the Chargers are playing much better football heading into the postseason.

But it's not really, Hank suggested Indianapolis. They don't have a quarterback though. Yeah, well, but that's how you get a guy like him to come coach for you. Sure. You're going to get to pick your quarterback. See, but last year, like for Harbaugh, last year he looked at the Vikings, right? Because they have a quarterback. They have Cousins.

You might not like Cousins. He played terribly against the Packers again in primetime. But it wasn't primetime. It wasn't a 1 o'clock game. But he had a quarterback. Like Jacksonville last year, had a quarterback ready to go. I don't think Harbaugh is going to go anywhere, leave Michigan for a Colts. We're like, I don't have a high draft pick really. Right. Like I don't have, I'm not

in a position to get CJ Stroud or Bryce Young. Um, but you know, I think he's not going anywhere that there's question marks in that position. Put it like that. I'll take the other side. I think he's going to Indy. I think that part not going anywhere that there's question marks in that position. Put it like that. I'll take the other side. I think he's going to Indy. I think that part of him going there will be a lot of backroom dealing to convince him that they're going to make a move to get the right kind of quarterback or give him a say in getting the right kind of quarterback,

either making a massive trade to move up or going and enticing one of the many guys on that carousel that we keep talking about. I don't know who his first choice would be, but I think that he will go to the NFL because he can only fall back in college. It can't get better. It can't get easier. We can mock USC or whatever, but it's only a year away where he's now competing directly with USC and UCLA for some of the talent he might have been able to bring to the Big Ten. It's only going to get harder in that conference. I don't see any upside for him staying.

I'm with you on that. I'm with you on that. But I think that you need to go somewhere where you're set up for success. I just don't know if that's Indianapolis right now or it's Denver. And that's my only pullback on that as well. But he's now – look, this is now two years in a row we've been flirting with this, right? And I think that there is definitely smoke there. It's been reported by well-sourced people who cover college football.

There is definitely smoke, Gabe, to him wanting to find a possible NFL home. Maybe the thing that drives him would be like some weird competitive thing he has with his brother. Maybe he just wants to show his brother's arguably top three, five coaches in the NFL. He's had an unbelievable run in Baltimore. Keeps winning, well, except for this week. Keeps winning whether his team's healthy or not. Maybe he just wants to go show he can be as successful as his brother because his last attempt at the NFL didn't really work out.

Yeah, he made a Super Bowl, though. He did, but he never got really any credit for it, and then he was out of the league. Yeah, no, he didn't get credit for it. No, you're certainly right. I guess there is a – Look, everywhere he's been, by the way, and I know people knock on him in Michigan.

He's won a lot of winning guys. He won at San Diego. He won at Stanford. He won at San Francisco. He's won at Michigan. He wins, man. He's a good coach. Yeah.

All right. Well, other sort of speculative things coming out of the college football playoff. I don't quite understand why people, we go back to Duggan for a sec why people are so convinced that a guy who only ever wins at the on the biggest stage he's ever had access to a guy like Duggan or a guy like Stetson Bennett unsigned guys Mr. Irrelevant and Brock Purdy these guys are the people we love to root for when they have some success so why are we always so sure the guy who's doing it in college can't possibly do it at the next level well because i think with with with nfl um you look at the best players in the nfl okay in that position and they all have some sort

of physical trait that is exceptional right so you look at even the old heads like the old old heads your your boy Thomas Brady. Like, dude has – he has an elite arm. Like, I think people don't believe – like, he has an elite arm. He's always had a great arm. And it almost looks like it's getting better or staying the same as he gets older. Great arm. Aaron Rodgers, right?

Incredible ability to throw the ball exactly where he wants it off weird platforms. And Brady, by the way, has many high – he's processing this great – all those things are fantastic. Pat Mahomes, Josh Allen, Joe Burrow. We're going to see Burrow and Allen tonight as we record this on Monday. Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbrook, all the young quarterbacks, even Jalen Hurts has an elite athleticism, like elite physical gift, right? Where Max Duggan and Stetson Bennett do not. And that's okay.

Brock Purdy doesn't. Brock Purdy ended up in the best offense for him. If Brock Purdy goes and plays in Detroit, actually Detroit's kind of a fun offense, the Texans, he's not this quarterback, right? Like, so, and when we talk about draft picks, we talk about them at the top end, right? Like, we don't talk about Jake Hayner from Fresno State,

who's going to be a third-round pick, who might be the Brock Purdy. Like, he's a pretty good quarterback at Fresno State, but he's been be a third-round pick, who might be the Brock Purdy. He's a pretty good quarterback at Fresno State, but he's been hurt, and he'll be drafted in the third or fourth round. We don't talk about that because the majority of NFL quarterbacks that start in the NFL are first- or second-round draft picks. So anything below that, you're just lucky. You got lucky if that happened.

And that's why a guy like Max Duggan, Stetson Bennett, they're not going to be drafted in the top two rounds. That's why we look at them and say, you know what? I'm just not sure that they're the NFL quarterback that we want. All right, fair enough. What about the opposite side of this? It's just a foregone conclusion, especially after he played so well in the playoff and lost.

C.J. Stroud, we've talked about him all year. He's obviously going, and he's obviously a top five or ten pick. But because of NIL money, because he would start the season right next to Caleb as the Heisman favorite, he would have a real shot at a national championship coming back at Ohio State. So he can make the money, he can win the championship, and he can wait until a team he might actually want to play for would draft him as opposed to the crap teams in the top five this year could cj stroud surprise us all instead no no no um cj stroud is a good lesson so uh well the lesson justin fields okay so um fields and lawrence were looked at in the class as one and two at the end of the season,

just like Bryce Young and C.J. Stroud are. And somehow we convinced ourselves that Justin Fields, I'm not sure it was one of them, was now not as good as Zach Wilson, right? I sure as shit wasn't one of those people. After this weekend, it's very clear that Bryce Young and C.J sung is each of the top two quarterbacks in college football okay bryce sung we know is good now the question with bryce young is his size he's under six feet tall under 200 pounds there is a long history of quarterbacks that are unsuccessful at that size in f of history so we'll find out what happens with him but dude has the goods right

he can throw we know that he's a leader all. The thing with CJ Stroud that was the question was whether or not he had that little, like, extra, like, maybe you want to call it a gamer ability, right? Like, kind of in those big moments, does he rise up? And I think for a lot of people, he really hadn't shown that part of his game until this Georgia game, where he ran the ball more than he ever had in his career when he made a lot of plays with pressure in his face which you know

had been an issue for him where he looked like the quarterback that I think everyone thinks he always is and I don't know if he saved himself for this moment but he looked really good in that moment and don't overthink this guys do not Will moment, but he looked really good in that moment. And don't overthink this, guys. Will Levis is not better than C.J. Stroud. Like, Bryce Young is one, C.J. Stroud is two. End of story. And he was great, man.

He played really well. They almost beat Georgia. He had Georgia on his heels. And it was a great semifinal weekend, man. It was the most fun we've had. You were on the West Coast. You didn't have this issue, but I'm laying in bed. My wife, we were actually awake.

Mostly because I was watching football, but my wife was still awake. She's watching the ball drop as I have my phone watching the end of the game. I'm like, hon, I'll give you a kiss in a second. I'm watching the football game. It's almost over. The kick went left as the ball dropped. It was kind of crazy. And it was a good semifinal.

And college football is in a healthy place, man. It's a fun sport. Yeah, it is, except for when kickers have something to do with the outcomes. We should get rid of kickers. It was, I almost tweeted out

that we should get rid of kickers this weekend because the NFL had a back kicking weekend as well. But I just didn't want the interaction on Twitter. I'm just like, I just, the Twitter thing, man,

I'm fortunate to get to a point where people like follow me and care what I say and whatnot. You know, I put out something last night in the Steelers game where Cam Hayward got the personal foul in that game at the end, which wasn't really his fault, but he ended up making contact with the ref. Like he was pulled by Ronnie Stanley and got, he kind of hit the ref as he dove over the pile.

And I just said, like, yeah, I think this was called because he made contact with the official. Like, not judging whether or not it was a good or bad call. And, like, Steelers fans, I'm like, guys, I'm not arguing with you. I'm just pointing out why I think it was called. Like, do we really have to argue all the time on every subject of social media?

So I didn't tweet that out for that reason. Like, I just, like, I just don't want my mentions being full of crazy fans of kicking yeah i made a joke about the jair alexander wearing one of those big hats and i got a million people up in my mentions pretending like i was taking it seriously it was unbelievable i think we need i think we need we need big hats now i would love to get a big hat. We'll get to that in over under. We'll also get to a few other Brady ideas. A bunch of things you just said made me want to talk about where Brady goes. Oh, wow.

Your tweet got like a lot of interaction. Wow. Well, thanks. It feels like a big brother patting his little brother. I saw yesterday. I didn't realize it got like, oh, good for you, man. Okay. All right.

So let me say that I want to talk about some crazy ideas, including Harbaugh and Brady and others. We'll get to that later. Let's talk about the NFL because we made it a little further than usual before talking about the NFL. By the way, we can agree that Ryan Day's job is safe and people calling for it are probably overreacting, right? Yes.

That was not a ryan day issue that was the defense just didn't you know got it okay just making sure we're not wasting time on that uh and we've covered lincoln riley and the fact that they have to hire a defensive coordinator that was our college segment for now let's talk nfl so aaron rogers is back uh i did not see this coming i i never wanted to rule the packers out as early as most people did but when they lost like five games in the middle of the season, he didn't look healthy. The defense couldn't play. I kind of just forgot to talk about him. Well, now they are basically a winning in against the Lions this weekend, which is a game they should win. And people like Kurt Benkert, our buddy

and a former Packers backup, says the Packers are a team no one wants to see in the playoffs. Now he's just getting his guys back. But a lot of people say exactly that thing, Jeff, that if they get in, they're scary. Do you buy that? Well, they're going to probably play the Niners and sorry, Packers fans are losing to the Niners. You're sure you're sure that Aaron Rodgers in the bay is better than brock purdy's first playoff game uh the niners um uh have owned the packers in the playoffs i think that there's a very shenahan very much knows what he's doing against the packers nonetheless um yeah look if they win five in a row i think it'd be five in a row and beat the lions on sunday um then you know they're

a quote-unquote dangerous team as a seventh seed. What's been impressive to me is not really Aaron Rodgers. It's the rest of the team, right? Their defense has been really good down the stretch. They forced a bunch of turnovers, and they're just not allowing teams to score. Jair Alexander, by the way, has backed up everything that he has talked about. He's playing good football. He played really well against Josh Jefferson.

And then offensively, it's weird. Aaron Jones is really good. They should use him more often, and they're using him more often, and the offense is much better. I think that the combination of all that, plus they've had some help, they've had some help along the way, but the combination of all those things

that's got them now, look, there's still a nine-win team in the end. They're a nine-win team if they win this weekend. They're the seventh seed in the playoffs. They have Aaron Rodgers, so absolutely they will be considered a team that can upset anybody. But the Niners are a better football team

if they end up playing. Anyone who plays the Vikings at the Elkhart Run, the Giants are going to beat the Vikings in the playoffs. They're going to beat the Vikings. Anyone is going to beat the Vikings. The Vikings just stink. So, I think the Packers play the Niners, which seems likely right now. If they win this weekend, they're not going to make it out of that wildcard round, but the end of the season

will be very impressive for what they've done. Okay. I just think that in the moments that we're going to have to see in the playoffs, Brock Purdy untested. If we're just going to throw to see in the playoffs. Brock Purdy untested. If we're just going to throw around hyperbole here, Brock Purdy untested versus Aaron Rodgers in his millionth playoff game.

First round we're talking. I'm not talking about a championship round. I know that doesn't always go Aaron's way. Like, I don't know, man. I know the public will be an interesting thing to watch in that matchup. I don't know why everyone would be so confident that Aaron Rodgers can't pull one out of his ass and beat Mr. Irrelevant. Okay, so the questions we had about Brock Purdy were, I think, like kind of threefold, right? It was like, okay, can he do it from behind?

Can he do it in a two-minute drill? Can he do it on the road? All three things happened. Now, it's the Raiders' defense. I get it. But on Sunday, the things that we said, can he do it on the road? Can he do it from behind?

And can he lead a two-minute drive? And some of those happened all at the same time, by the way. But he was really good. He was good, Gabe. He played good football in those moments. What's that look for? The completion in the game. What was it?

Game tying. Game go. Go ahead. Drive. The completion came up short is meant for Kittle. He got hit. His arm got hit. The ball goes to what was I?

You. It was meant for Kittle. Like his biggest completion of the day was an accident. Wait, which one? This is going to be boring podcast. No, he played fine. Otherwise he, he, he, he, he drove the team down. Oh yeah. I know what you're talking about. The one that led to the field goal before then. Okay. That was one. How about the rest of them where he played well down the stretch? Um, so he, to me, he answered some of the question marks now the question with brock purdy is and the niners can he do this in the link on january 29th against the eagles that's the question right like can he

do this away from home on the road in a playoff game uh i hope to find out because i think the niners might might end up playing the eagles if the eagles are on the struggle bus too, but they'll probably end up with the one seed anyways. Probably, but that's not a sure thing now anymore. I guess if the Eagles aren't the one seed, then all these scenarios are thrown out of whack because all the seedings are screwed up. So let's talk about the team that's locked into the four seed. Because whatever higher powers people who listen believe in,

we can all agree they're all helping tom brady whatever you like to call your god he's on tom brady's side because the guy is a loser this year having had his worst year ever and yet he will host a playoff game because of course he will now he won another comeback game the other day mainly because his defense bailed him out after he had a hissy fit in the fourth quarter um but he'll get to host a game because he's tom brady which means of course he'll friggin win his opening round playoff game so once tom brady gets into january and wins one game do we throw out the entire season and just say it's Tom Brady's to lose? Is that where we're going to be in a week? So the Patriots, the Bucs played a single good quarter. It was 21 to 10 in the fourth quarter,

right? They played one good quarter. So they're not back. They're not, in my opinion, as a team, they're not scary. However, Gabe, the scary person is Tom Brady because throughout his career, he has been able to make chicken salad out of chicken scratch, right? Like he's been able to do that his entire career. I know your face, you're making a face right now. I don't like it, but I appreciate it. You know, I'm right. He's always done this. I don't know to your point about what God he prays to, what luck he has, but he's always done this. And the way it's setting up now is the Eagles play the Giants this weekend. The Eagles need to win to secure the one seed. The Giants, at least according to the betting line,

which is now the game is 13.5, the Giants are locked in the sixth seed. I don't expect the Giants to play any of their starters. The Eagles should win that game. So that puts the Cowboys as the fifth seed in Tampa Bay. The Cowboys are going to be a four to five point favorite in that game, in wildcard weekend. No one's going to pick the Cowboys to win that game. No.

Not one person. And it's because of Tom Brady, but also because no one trusts the Cowboys. If that was another team like the Giants in Tampa Bay who are not better than the Cowboys or the Packers in Tampa Bay, people would be inclined to pick the Giants or Packers because they trust the coaching staff more. So it's kind of twofold, right? Like, yes, Tom Brady has been able to do a lot of magic. And most often this year, it's been when he's in the two-minute drill because he's allowed to call his own offense and be the offense because they can't run the football so that's kind of why i think there's a little bit of oh is tampa back because everyone's looking forward to them

playing the cowboys again if they were playing someone else i don't think we'd be quite as like they're quote-unquote back making the playoffs you're gonna make a playoff run it's more that they're playing we know kind of on the horizon, they're playing the Cowboys, but, but okay. Let's say that they didn't have the Cowboys. You're,

you're making a bunch of excuses for people who aren't saying what you're saying. Any quarterback, they team is for cocktail. Okay. They, they're either going to get the Cowboys, a good Yiddish word.

How about, Oh, what? You only come here for good Yiddish words, everybody. Well, so, okay.

So then we got, I'm saying, I think it's like, we can do it for our Italian friends for Gazi. They're all, you know, I don't want to start cursing in English because kids might be in the car, but the quarterbacks,

they get a player garbage cousins, Jones, Purdy. Yeah. It's not a great, it's not a great quarterback. Yeah. I mean,

look, the NFC is going to be, it's kind of interesting, right? It's unproven. Jalen hurts, right, look, the NFC is going to be – it's kind of interesting, right? It's unproven Jalen Hurts, right? Unproven Jalen Hurts. And Hurts. Unproven Hurts.

Jalen Hurts. Brock Purdy. Yeah. Primetime cousins. Tom Brady. Dak Prescott. Daniel Jones. And most likely Aaron Rodgers.

Two quarterbacks that most will believe in are Rodgers and Brady. And it's why, cause the AFC is the exact opposite where like one through seven, really one through six, you're like, holy heck, I don't want to play any of these guys at any point. And maybe one through five,

we'll see how Lamar, you know, if he gets back healthy, but at least one through six, you're like, I don't want to see any of those quarterbacks. Yeah. I know who Matt Jones is a 17.

That's why I said that. You don't want to know who cares about Mac Jones, Yeah, I know who Matt Jones is the 17th. That's why I said that. You don't want to know who cares about Matt Jones. But one through six, you're like, I just worried about playing those teams anytime, anywhere. The NFC is not like that. All right. So then let me ask this. We are here because we like to talk about other people's takes.

And one of the people we reference often because he has a lot of takes and we both like him is Colin Coward. Colin, I'm summarizing. So there might be some nuance here, but Colin basically said, Tom Brady, it's time to think about going back to the Dolphins. Yeah, the team he tried to conspire to go play for with Sean Payton. Clearly, the last few weeks have shown us they shouldn't feel great about their quarterback. They might love their coach. They might like their defense, but quarterback ain't it.

Should Tom Brady figure out a way to weasel himself in Miami next year? Well, okay. So if he's looking for a place to win quickly, I think the option is the Niners. If he gets a choose, the choice is the Niners, right? Well, he's not going to get to choose that. I also think the Jets are an option. No, no, no. We did this. I'm not taking this bait. No, I'm saying if you need a quarterback

to win, it's time. I know. A team to win. But yeah, he can go to Miami. I don't think Miami's in a spot to win a Super Bowl next year. I mean, do you remember? He went to the Bucs, okay? And they had an upper-tier offensive line. Mike Evans, Chris Godwin,

Gronk came with them in a top-five defense, okay? The Dolphins don't have all those pieces right now the same way the Bucs did in a bad division. So he'd be going to Miami and then having to deal with Josh Allen each week. And maybe the Jets pick up someone else and become a competent football team. And then you have, obviously, look, love him or hate him,

I don't know how Bill Belichick is doing it, but there may be a playoff team again with Matt Jones as quarterback and Matt Patricia calling the offense. They got to beat the Bills on Sunday. And the Bills, again, they play tonight as we record this on Monday. We'll find out how important that game is

for the Bills next weekend. But, you know, like, I don't think Tom wants to play in that division. And the division he's in now is quarterbacked by Andy Dalton, Desmond Ritter, and Sam Darnold. Yeah. Okay.

That doesn't sound great. All right. If we're going to throw out wacky places to go, as Colin has done with Miami, two other options for you. You mentioned the Jets. I don't think so. I think they're going to start Zach next year

to tank to get Caleb. That's my plan. Oh, yeah. No, Robert Sala get fired for that. Okay, well, they'll do something pointless. Punt on next year. That's the hard point about all of this is like is like some of the teams that you'd say 100%

you say like I would tank for that guy. The problem is like for Robert Sala, he's got a winner. he's going to get fired. Okay, fair enough. Let's focus on Brady for a second. What about this idea? This is going to build from crazy to crazier, so take a breath. What about Brady?

As many have mentioned, including Nick Wright, Brady to the Raiders, but in doing so, he picks his head coach and moves McDaniels back to OC and just says, Josh, you want to stay here? This is the only way it's going to work. And who does he pick? A Michigan man, Jim Harbaugh.

Did you come up with this or call him up? I'm coming up with this as we talk. Tom Brady to the Raiders pushes McDaniels down, makes Harbaugh the coach, tells Harbaugh, focus on the defense. These guys can't play D. Well, Harbaugh's an offensive coach. It's going to be a hard sell to keep Harbaugh.

Doesn't matter. Just go make him play. Teach him defense. Give him offensive mindset. Wouldn't you hire, I don't know, a defensive coach then to be the head coach or hire DC? I don't know. You don't love that idea. Let me think of a better one.

Your David Shaw to coach the Broncos idea made us an entire two segments on the radio. Happy to help. Let's breathe that into existence. Then Mr. Shaw can thank me when he becomes the new head coach and then he'll hate me when he's the new head coach all right how about this idea even crazier but it's time to ask the question is the belichick era over if they lose this year the answer i say is yes. What do you mean? Like if they don't make the playoffs, you mean? Uh-huh. And then what about this?

How do you replace Bill Belichick? You need an enormous, enormous presence. Tom Brady goes there, brings Jim Harbaugh with him there. Jim Harbaugh ushers in the new era of coaching in New England. That's more realistic than the Raiders won. Okay.

I'm in for that one. I'm in for that one myself, personally. That'd be fun to watch. Okay, since we're in the yes and mode, how about this? Tom Brady. Because Harbaugh is such a grinder too. Yeah, I like it. Him and Brady would get along like that.

Yeah, it seems like Harbaugh could keep up with Brady. Let's go further though. He doesn't need Harbaugh. Tom Brady to New England where he is the player coach uh no tom brady to the jets just to torture you no okay and then i'll take and he'll wear number 15 too i don't i don't like the sound of that at all imagine he did that that would be such a slight to my guy um all right four seeds are the other thing people are talking about so that the bucks are in they don't deserve to be the four seed but that's the way the world works the jags are in good on them uh let's assume they will let's

assume they win and they're in they get a four seed which would feel earned to me um everyone's in love with them i'm not who's a scarier for, the Bucs or the Jags, given the situation? Oh, Tom Brady is. Okay. I thought that was a quick answer. Is there any other team in the playoff picture right now that you want to talk about? Because there's one other team we haven't mentioned that I think deserves more commentary this week. I think if you are a wagering man, a team to put money on is the Los Angeles Chargers.

Yeah, thank you. a team to put money on is the Los Angeles Chargers. Yeah, thank you. Again, I don't advocate much for long shots. If you listen to this podcast long enough with Matt and I, I'm not like, take the long shot. Just because it has good value on it. Chargers are playing kind of good football. Now, they're the Chargers, so they're untrustworthy.

But, Gabe, their defense is playing much better lately. They're getting healthy on offense. Now, Slater might come back to play left tackle. That would be great if he did. But, you know, with Mike Williams and Keenan Allen, guess what, guys? The quarterback is better. What a shocker.

And they're on their way to be the five seed. And they'll play Jacksonville. They beat Jacksonville. I mean, I wouldn't want to be the team off a bye playing the Chargers. So to me, it's the Chargers are kind of the quiet, scary team. They're probably not that quiet, but they're just sort of there. And I think, again, back to our quarterback conversation that we had about the college quarterbacks,

whether it's Stetson Bennett and Max Duggan. When you have a guy like Justin Herbert, you have a chance to win every game. It's that simple, right, Gabe? He's that much of a talent. That's the importance of having a player like that, is you go into the playoffs thinking, okay, our dude can get hot. For me, Daniel Jones doesn't do that for me. Daniel Jones is not a guy for the Giants where you're like, man,

if he gets hot, we're going to win the football games. You do with Justin Herbert. And by the way, they also play the Chiefs better than anyone in the history of football has ever played. If they play Kansas City, you're like, oh, they can probably beat Kansas City too. There's that element as well to this discussion. Okay. Well, you left out one important name when you were rattling off the great players

and the Chargers, and we will get to him when we move the line, our little over-under game. We'll do that right after a break. All right, we're back. I want to talk MVP. So I'm maybe kind of a little bit trying to trigger you here. I don't know. Over under 15% chance Jalen Hurts getting hurt helped his MVP odds.

It proved how damn valuable he is to that team. Yeah, but the first game they scored 34 points. Like, no one was talking about that after that first game. Sounds like you're taking the under. Pat Mahomes is the national football MVP. I think if Jalen Hurts doesn't get hurt, he does win the MVP, though. But Pat Mahomes is far more valuable for

the Chiefs. I mean, the Chiefs defensively, if Russell Wilson and Nate Hackett put the Chiefs every week, they'd be in the Hall of Fame. Like, the Chiefs couldn't stop the Broncos in two games. The Chiefs defense is terrible. Pat has to do more for that team to win. The Terps does.

I think we've covered that topic enough, but it was a way for me to get to this. Over under five and a half, the place where Austin Eckler finishes in the MVP voting. Five and a half. Is he a top five mvp vote getter don't just blurt out an answer think about it no no no no i'm explaining let me just let so there's 50 voters to vote for the mvp award and for all by the way all the awards and you

see the nflpa is doing their own awards this year like whatever guys i don't think the ap voters are that bad where you have to do your own your own set of I have like voters that vote for the offensive line. They reach out to me and say, hey, who should I vote for to get your instruction? Like smart. They do their due diligence. Like I don't know why the NFL PA feels like they need to do their own awards. Doesn't matter. Sidebar.

So there's 50 voters. It used to be for the MVP. It was one vote. You have one exact vote. So you vote for Pat Mahomes or Jalen Hurts, that's it. Now, you vote for five players, and it's a tiered system like most voting goes for a lot of these awards.

So there will be votes for Austin Eckler. This actually helps Pat Mahomes, by the way, who's going to be one and two in every ballot. He won't be below two. And Hurts I can see falling below two on some ballots. So Mahomes is going to win the MVP in this new system by far. But Austin Eckler will get, like,

I think even Daniel Jones might get some votes. Austin Eckler might get some votes. There's going to be a lot of people now who get votes that normally don't just as recognition of you played well this year. Here's my fifth place vote for you. Okay. Thank you for the thorough explanation. But now tell me,

is that going to equal a top five finish for Austin Ecklund? No. Okay. So despite all of that, he still falls outside because you're assuming Pat and Jalen in that order. Then it's probably close between who? Burrow and Allen? Where do we go next? I think there could be some Justin Jefferson votes.

Jefferson, sure. Okay, I was going to get to him. So he gets in there as probably the first non-quarterback. I guess there'll be some Burrow and Allen probably. Whoever finishes first in the AFC, they'll get votes. Look, man, this sounds rude. It certainly is rude. But no one cares about the Chargers.

You're the one who just hyped them up and said they're going to win the first round of the playoffs. No one's going to vote for Austin Eckler at that rate, that bulk rate. I would if I had to vote. We didn't get you to vote. I'm working towards it. All right, over under 30% chance, Ron Rivera really did not know that his team could be eliminated from the playoff contention on Sunday pending results of other games. What are the chances that he didn't know that when he talked about it in his press conference?

So Coach Rivera then came out and clarified that he actually did not know because he was so focused on winning this game that he did not know that if they lost, what would happen. I sort of get that, but it's your job to know everything, right? The more egregious thing, two things. One, Washington fans, I'm sorry, Hank and Matt. Major Tutty, just the most embarrassing mascot of all time. Great name, embarrassing mascot. But more importantly is that you went to Carson Wentz

to win you a playoff spot, and that's unacceptable. Two years in a row now, Carson Wentz to win you a playoff spot and that's unacceptable uh two years in a row now Carson Wentz has been in a position where he's had an opportunity to basically get you into the playoffs and he's failed miserably both times in those opportunity like he's just a not an untrustworthy player and I can't believe they went back to him in that situation. It's just unacceptable, man. It's just not acceptable. That's why he'd get fired more than anything else. All right.

Ron Rivera stays in D.C. Tom Brady is the quarterback. Tom Brady brings his own O.C. And a couple of weapons on offense. Possible? So when we were talking earlier, that was the one team I did not mention that was in my head. I think there's no chance he goes to that dumpster fire organization.

Okay. Well, I mean, he doesn't mind. Let's just say morally questionable people have not proven problematic for him in the past. Let's just say that. Fair. Okay, great. I'll take that as a win.

Here's a good tweet from my buddy Rob Stats Guerrero. I used to be with Mike and my crew, and now he's out in San Francisco. He says, can someone explain to me how Kyle Shanahan isn't the coach of the year? Brian Dayball getting to the playoffs is great, but Shanahan's team could be the number one seed after playing three different quarterbacks,

including a seventh-round rookie. Is that even debatable? Shouldn't he obviously be the number one seed after playing three different quarterbacks, including a seventh round rookie. Is that even debatable? Shouldn't he obviously be the coach of the year? No, Brian Dable should be coach of the year. Oh, come on. Look at Brian Dable's team. They're in the playoffs. But they were a playoff team already.

The Niners were already a playoff team. Sorry. Okay. You're saying that what Dayball did that quickly with the giants even though they're a borderline team makes them even more impressive yes all right fair enough i i guess i'll take that then how come we don't talk about mike tomlin good good transition we should talk about mike tomlin who please do um beat the they beat the. By the way, do you see that Harbaugh and Tomlin now, I think, have the third most meetings all time, like coach versus coach.

It's fantastic. It's crazy. They meet, obviously, every two years for the last four years. Yeah, and then every now and then in the postseason. So it's like two plus a year. Yeah, and the games are always 16-13 like they was last night. With a win against the Browns on Sunday. The Sears will be over 500 again for the 15th year in a row under Mike Tomlin,

whatever it is. I think this year would make 16. I think he's already got 15. They have finished. What do you mean? He's already got what? I believe he has done that for 15 years. Yes.

This would become the 16th year. Yes, yes. And he's finished at least 516 straight seasons. It's really incredible what he's been able to do. And, you know, I think my takeaway from Pittsburgh is it feels like there's a little bit of juice with Kenny Pickett. Like, there's something there, Gabe. It's not always perfect.

It's not great. But there are flashes that give you excitement to where you have a better... Their OC's terrible. You get a better offensive coordinator in there, and you have a chance. But there's something to Tomlin... They put out a... On Showtime, inside the NFL, there was a...

I think it's on Showtime. I have no idea if it's still on Showtime. I saw someone tweet out a clip of Mike Tomlin mic'd up for the previous game against the Raiders, dude. He's such a positive coach. And he's positive, but also he expects a lot from his players. He's tough on his

players, but lovey and caring. That blend of tough, but lovey and caring, you can tell the players just love playing for him. They love playing for him. And I don't know if he does much schematics at times, but who cares? Like some coaches do that. Some coaches are the motivator types. And Mike Tomlin is an incredible motivator, man.

Like he is in, and I think that he has, he only has one Superbowl, right? If he has, if he wins another another one I think people will look at him a little differently but with one I think people he doesn't get the credit he deserves I think for being as good as they've been for so many years well yeah and also like I don't know how you qualify or quantify this but like you know we talk about the consistency of Belichick but yeah I mean he did it all with basically one quarterback the entire time. Mike Tallman had a long run with Ben, obviously, but Ben's not Tom, and he's had a whole lot of quarterbacks thrown in. He would 8-8 with Mason Rudolph.

Exactly. He was winning with other guys. It's super impressive. It's super impressive. It's really good. I would have loved to play for him. I think it would have been fun to play for a coach like that. I have a lot of respect for him.

You know, the one thing about Pittsburgh, too, is they never rebuilt. And I'm pretty much a fan. Like, I'm okay with the idea of a rebuild, right? Like, tanking to get draft picks. They've never done that, man. They've never done that. They just continue to build that roster up,

coach guys up, make guys better, and get into a spot where they have a chance to win each week. Now, they need, you know, again, they need to get to a point where they're able to compete for a championship. But maybe Kenny Pickett is that guy. We'll find out in the next couple of years. Yeah, well, I think a lot of that has to do with coach, but also when you pick guys like Cam Hayward, who are the best at their position and unquestionably good dudes who set a tone for all kinds of other people around them, like that buys you a lot. I mean, look, look, they drafted Hayward.

They drafted Watt. They drafted Pickens. They drafted, you know, most of the other guys on defense. You know, Fitzpatrick was a trade. Friermuth was drafted. Kenny Pickett was drafted. Nashi Harris, like the offensive line's all drafted. They just, they hit home runs in the draft.

And when they screw it up, they don't hang on. They just go okay well it was a good run while it lasted but it's time for you to go antonio brown levian bell chase claypool not that all three of those guys were the same reasons i don't mean to equate them in that way but jake okay it's not working out here see you later yeah martavis it's pretty impressive too like they're just like i think for a lot of coaches, and to deal with Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell on one team is pretty remarkable. Yeah, it's remarkable.

All right, so the Broncos are a total shit show. We can just call it what it is. Hank has a question here that I'm going to try to give you word for word just because I don't know where this is going. What percentage of the Broncos collapse are the Chiefs responsible for? We're going to say over under 34 percent because the Broncos felt they had to go all in on quarterback because of Mahomes. Right. Like they were their hand was forced. And maybe they're more content to draft and develop a quarterback if Casey isn't who they have to try to beat for the next decade with Mahomes.

So maybe they would have been wiser and not jumped at the chance to get Russell Wilson, so maybe this is all Patrick Mahomes' fault. Ah. It's not a bad – I mean, in the end, they are chasing him. It's not the worst take in the world, Hank. I could see that. I think they wanted Aaron Rodgers and just didn't end up with him, and that's what ended up happening.

If they had had Aaron Rodgers this whole season, they're not a laughable mess, but they're probably not great either. Russ has been bad. They're probably a playoff team, the seventh seed. You think there's room for them? They beat out?

Fair enough. All right. Last one. And obviously, people would have needed to have seen this and really looked at it closely to understand this. But I think if you're listening at this point in the show, you paid a lot of attention to football the last few days. So Coach Sarkeesian in Texas is caught on camera screaming at like an event day staff

member. I wouldn't even call him a security guard. Somebody was there trying to help with the intros. And he, this guy lightly touches him to say, hold on coach, please don't want them out there yet. And he stares this guy down and says, get your effing hands off me. You know, don't ever effing touch me really, really rude to this guy. And then Twitter saw it. And then everyone then everyone you know piled on coach uh like is there any kind of rationale just try please as a guy who's been in those heated moments is there some excuse for the way sarkisian behaves that isn't just this guy's a prick

there's no excuse just tell me can you get your hand off me like what are you screaming his face for yeah he's trying to hold you back like Like, grow up. Grow up, Sark. Even if you're really, really annoyed, you can just say, please get your hands off. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Well, I didn't know if maybe, you know, every now and then we misunderstand these situations

and you have an insight of like, no, hold on. That's not what it looks like. And I was hoping for Sark's case. That was going to be one of those times. But no, he's just being a bully. What do you think? He looked like a total maniac to me. Yeah, yes.

Yes. Well, then simple as that. Don't be a maniac. What did we miss, Jeff? Anything? Oh, did we talk about how USC lost to Tulane? Shut up, Jeff. No, we didn't do that? Oh, God. I don't know. I forgot. I couldn't know. I forgot.

I couldn't remember. We're probably the Varsity Podcast Network. Matt and I, by the way, are close to 500 again. We are 500 every year in our picks, and it's kind of perfect because we make no one money. Anyone who wants to fade us, you don't make money. Anyone who rolls with doesn't make money either. No one makes money.

I think maybe the point of this whole operation um we'll be back later this week to talk about um all our picks um what what what how about this man we go from c cfp semi-finals to a great nfl sunday to usc two lane to the rose bowl right now as we're recording this, then to Bills and whatchamacallits tonight. It's incredible. I'm excited for ball, man. It's a really fun time of the year. Obviously, college football is coming to an end, but great semifinal game. We'll be back in a couple

of days, everyone. Take care. Have a great one.