Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Chiefs Survive Titans, Brady Saves the Season, and the Jets... Are Good?

Episode Date: November 8, 2022

Geoff and Gabe are back after a harrowing Chiefs victory over the Titans. Vrabel and Co. always seem to have Kansas City's number, but MVP Mahomes was able to do just enough when it mattered to pull out the win. Plus, the Colts are just guessing, Brady saved the Bucs season (but the Rams and Packers had no such luck), and the Jets might just be worth believing in.This week on Moving the Line, Geoff starts off by sharing his thoughts on Kyrie Irving's suspension before getting into some lighter topics, like CFP predictions and Kliff Kingsbury's impending demise.As always, be sure to like, rate, and comment on the pod if you enjoyed, and follow to get notified when new episodes drop twice a week.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's tuesday november 8th i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe goodwin this jeff schwartz is smart and you powered by the varsity podcast network and gabe we have a a goofy nfl story that's i mean goofy might not even be the right word for it the colts have fired their head coach and hired intro coach that's never had any coaching experience of all time we had big wins by your two favorite teams by my favorite team we will have some serious talk in the middle of the show about some anti-semitism circling around sports right now so we will get to that i've been meaning to talk about it we'll do it on this podcast instead of twitter because that's a bad medium for all this but gabe before we get to that how was your weekend and this news of

the cult has consumed my mind for the last hour before this was announced. The discrepancy between your, you know, that meme that went crazy about giving an F and F-ing around. You know, there's like the chart. You're giving an F to my F-ing around with this story. We're not in sync on this. I don't care one iota about who the head coach of the Colts is. I do think that Jeff Saturday getting the job and all the immediate reaction that that created is interesting. So let's get into it. My weekend was good.

The Trojans hung on. I hung on despite having 900 drinks at an alumni event. I managed to survive the weekend. How about you? You got through another organ win you an alumni weekend in los angeles i was at the coliseum i got to the game nice and early had private performance by the band had a bunch to drink and eat wait but your wife went there though yeah yeah yeah that's it so alumni weekends for her you just tagged along yeah correct that was

the plus one you made it seem like it was a gw weekend in los angeles and you were happy to be there no no usc alumni weekend oh but you're not but you're not an alumni of us alum alumnus of usc the listeners of the show already know that i did not get a degree from usc all right you held on to beat the mighty Cal Golden Bears. Beat the Bears. Beat the Bears. I was in the mountains this weekend with like, we had no service at the house. We had to go to a bar and watch Georgia, Tennessee and Oregon, Colorado. But good weekend. Weird NFL Sunday.

And then an even weirder NFL Monday. I don't know why this is not at all intriguing to you, what's happening in Indianapolis right now. Well, okay, so we made a pact on this show a couple seasons ago to not talk about the Colts if we could avoid it. But that was more because of Carson Wentz and Matt Ryan. This is above and beyond those decisions. All right, so Jim Irsay, the owner,

announced that they were letting go of Frank Reich, a guy who everyone loved not that many months ago. But the team's been off to a bad start. They lost to the Pats, who shouldn't have beat him. And basically they're rebuilding, but in a very weird way. So Jeff Saturday, who we should say I should say, at least I like I worked with at ESPN. I think he's smart. He knows the game, but he's never coached college or NFL at any level. Uh, and now he's the head coach of the Colts with about a half a season to play. The takes instantly started firing. Most common among them was, huh? This is the home run swing.

A guy who's never, ever coached before people took it to all kinds of places. What is your initial reaction to Jeff getting this job job uh funny like hilarious like what are we doing colts um on the more serious side before we get into laughing about this uh i mean brian flores just got a bunch of ammo for his lawsuit right yes you passed up on marcus brady who was the oc there who got fired two weeks ago doesn doesn't even call plays. I don't know, you fire an OC who doesn't call plays, you're just firing a scapegoat. And now you pass over other players like Reggie Wayne, former Colts legend who's on this coaching staff there,

to hire Jeff Saturday. And you're right, Jeff Saturday's a great guy. I've talked to him plenty of times. Fantastic individual. Great guy. But an analyst at ESPN right right now like not even in the coaching world and you bypassed again marcus brady who you fired two weeks ago it does seem like that was sort of planned now right because if he's on the staff you can't give this job to jeff saturday

um so all the people um that have said hey there's a hiring problem in the nfl are absolutely right this proves it again right so now we've moved past that serious issue, and again, Brian Flores, add this to your lawsuit, right? Like, it's a great example for you, and I'm sure he will. From the practicality sense, like, what the fuck, man? Like, what is he, what is Jeff Saturday going to do? He's going to show up today, all right? And is he in charge of what

game planning, uh, practice, uh, playing time, cafeteria food, um, injury decisions, scouting. What is he doing? Like what, what is in-game decisiongame decision making i guess it's on him now hey go hey we're going for the fourth down um there are two other coaches on the staff gus bradley and john fox who have been head coaches john fox but a super bowls um championship games gus bradley been is successful at times not a bad coach not a great coach there's i saw someone there's another up-and-coming coach on the colt staff as well that should have got a chance um like what what's he gonna do like i just it's just like it it's a it's the funniest thing for a franchise that me and you do not take seriously for this reason and then the other other side, and this is, and again, we've kind of compared the Colts and

Titans, right? And we compare the, we say, look, all the attention is on the Colts, okay? The shiny object. We like their general manager. We talk about them each year. Frank Reich's a great coach of all time, even though it obviously seems like Doug Peterson was the one behind that, which I've said all along in Philadelphia, it was Doug Peterson.

And it failed in Indianapolis. Turner tensioned a little south to Tennessee to their division rival, who just hung with the Chiefs with a non-existent passing game in Arrowhead. And all we do, again, I'm guilty of this, is praise the Colts and talk shit about the tendency titans i made a pledge a few weeks ago to stop doing that and definitely i've stopped doing that and look at the colt the the titans right now like and look at the call they're two separate they're not even the same universe right now right so um this just kind of goes to show you that one organization is

run by jim ursay who is hotheaded, quick to make decisions, quick to make bad decisions. He's not sticking through with a plan. He's like desperate to win so badly that he doesn't even have a plan. Right. And so I'm sure they're going to try to get Sean Payton or Urban Meyer. I mean, if you're going to try to get someone, some big name who's out there. So I just, the contrast in just those two franchises one gets all the love

one doesn't one wins and one doesn't yeah i think we could probably go forever speculating about how these decisions get made um part of me wonders jeff since obviously to your real point at the top, like. They just blew past all the stuff that we we were told the league and teams are starting to emphasize and prioritize. Right. They blew past all that to go to a guy who, even if we like, is unqualified. And so it's impossible not to look at, you know, the color of his skin. I guess what I'm wondering, though, is since Jeff Saturday is considered a good guy and is well networked around NFL circles

and his friends with some powerful people and has a big platform, is there something to be said for just him like steadying the ship so that they can go make the hire you're talking about? Could he just be there to make sure the culture isn't a total mess for eight games and then they go hire the guy that fixes the actual team and maybe that's the arrangement but but they're gonna but no matter

what like the person who hires who hires the next coach is going to just demolish everything that this season is like you have a whole new coaching staff like what is he what is he trying to hold in place some culture that that will get eliminated as soon as the new coach comes in and brings in his own culture like what is the purpose of this like that to me is is like what like what are we doing here like what's the purpose of of this hire what do you what are you trying to hold on? All of it will get blown up when you hire a new head coach. Yeah. Do you think that there will be some, I don't know if investigation is too severe sounding of word, but we're going to get some real reporting on this, right? I mean, presumably within the next few days,

we're going to hear how and why was this decision made? Who had, who had a say in this decision? You know, who's influenced? Well influence well it was it was ursa and you get to pass all those things when you hire an interim coach right you mean all those things meaning like the way that the rooney rule is meant to be yes yeah okay well i mean look they're inviting a lot of criticism um which maybe isn't even fair to jeff because jeff perhaps could be a great coach one day uh but here he is in this spot. So they're an irrelevant team as far as I'm concerned on the field. The rest of the way, we'll see where this story goes. Let's talk about the best team in the AFC right now,

your Chiefs, who held off barely held off those division rivals in the Titans, at least the Colts division rivals. So I'm going to say this to trigger you. Patrick Mahomes is good to us. All he does is win. He's also the best passer alive. But Jeff, you have to admit, you are a little bit scared of what the Titans showed people. With no pass game, they had this game. If not for Patrick Mahomes being a magician,

the Titans win this game. Oh yeah, I mean the Titans with any sort of offense magician, the Titans win this game. Oh, yeah. I mean, the Titans, with any sort of offense at all, would have won this game. The Titans, man, they have given this blueprint during the regular season. They have really, really made things difficult for Pat Mahomes. I think I was listening to a podcast today, I forget which one, who mentioned something like that the Titans, and it looks this way, too. I haven't watched a film on it. They just seem to know what the Chiefs are running. Like, Mike Vrabel has a great game plan.

And then again, I mean, whenever they play New England, New England has a great game plan against the Chiefs too. And right now, the game plan, it's quite simple when Tennessee, at least yesterday, very simple. The Chiefs don't have many guys that can beat man coverage. We're going to play very physical on your wide receivers. We're going to double Travis Kelsey. And when we pass rush, we're not going to rush wildly.

We're going to have a controlled pass rush that squeezes the pocket down. Now, when it didn't work, we saw what Mahomes did in the final drive, right? Like that's what happens when it doesn't work. When you allow him to get out of that pocket, he makes those plays. And really, the thing I love about Mahomes is he's just faster than the guy trying to tackle him like that's that's how fast he is that's it and he's able to move his feet in like in ways like when he got simmons to fall down that touchdown like one thing i've noticed too and this is just a random factoid in my weird brain like i used to always think that running away from someone was

the fastest way to get by them a lot of of these guys, they run at the person, and then they move, and they pop. Like, I'm too slow for that. I can't run at someone, and then, like, give a one-two and go to the side. But that's how guys do it, right? They kind of square up, make you think they're running at you. You slow your feet a little bit, and then boom.

And Mahomes is just so skilled, man. I mean, and he needed every ounce of that because the Chiefs' offense wasn't very good at running the ball. And a lot of those sacks were coverage sacks, but the pass protection wasn't that great. And so they needed that Pat Mahomes ability in this game. He had a big 12, 48 of 67. He was three pass attempts shy of the NFL record for most in a game.

He had more rushing yards than all the Chiefs combined. They had like 13 rushing yards from running backs. It was a great performance by him. But Tennessee, man, they have the Chiefs combined. They had like 13 rushing yards from running backs. It was a great performance by him. But Tennessee, man, they have the Chiefs' number. They have for years now. They play close games. The Chiefs' defense was much better in the second half when it was very clear Malik Willis couldn't throw the ball at all.

They had some drops that helped at all. Third time since 2000 in a game a wide receiver did not catch a pass for a team. And one of those games was the Kendall Hilton quarterbacking performance in the COVID year for the Broncos when he was the wide receiver having played quarterback. The other one, by the way, was the Mac Jones three-pass attempt win against Buffalo. So very different, all three different games.

But, yeah, I came away more impressed with Tennessee's defense than anything else in this game. Like, the Chiefs won, great. Good to catch up with the Bills again. Like, those are all great things. But Tennessee's defense, man, Tennessee has got to find a way to beat man coverage. And that's why Kadarius Toney was brought in.

At times, they look good doing this. I know Chiefs fans want to blame Andy Reid for the play calling at times. Sure, there were times I questioned it, but I think Tennessee just did a great job, Gabe. Yeah, I mean, they had the game won. I wonder if with Tannehill or, you know, what they would claim they needed to be just a little bit different to hold on and win that game. The thing that we probably won't hear much but is undeniable now is like Patrick Mahomes is the MVP right I mean I know it's sexy and fun to talk about other guys but like he showed you why he's

the most he's the best player we already knew that but he's also the most valuable player unless he does the things he does they lose those games absolutely um and this is why you pay him all that money it's why you know Kansas City has built their team around him obviously and it's why you can play freer on defense don't if you make mistakes you have Pat Mahomes to bail you out and the defense obviously didn't have that really issue in this game and you know I tweeted out during the game to a third quarter like Tennessee's offense is just it's just keeping the Chiefs in this game. Like, they're just not doing enough to get Mahomes off being Mahomes. Yeah, I just, you know, Kansas City can't win games throwing the ball 65 times.

Like, they're going to have to come up with some other way to win football games. But it showed yesterday, you know, he doesn't make the mistakes that we see, again, Josh Allen make make some times like that's just a slight difference between them right like yeah mahomes with an interception one i think i saw something he's had nine interceptions in the last two years that are thrown off wide receivers hands like that and seven of those have like over 700 catch radius or whatever catch percentage same thing happened last night off kelsey's hands um he doesn't make those really bad mistakes he just doesn't do that right like he might miss a throw but like there's not that crippling turnover he makes in big moments not often obviously he had one gets buffalo a few

weeks ago and that that's what sets him apart he's he's on pace for like 5300 yards and some absurd touchdown number i'm glad Matt and I bet him to win the MVP in our, in our preseason, um, in our preseason podcast. Well done. Um, yeah, Pat sort of reminds me you're now a golfer. So this analogy will work for you. Like if there's a foursome out there and you got Brady and Alan and Lamar, let's say, and they're all in this golf or some like. Each of those guys hits a nicer ball off the tee most of the time or chips out or does something flashy from a fairway. But when then you get to the 18th hole and you add up the scores like Pat shot three

over like he beat him all and he never really did anything that made you go like wow that guy was the best player here but like he just consistently very very very good and so he wins i that's as simple as it is for me yeah he does the little things like i said like that rush there was a third and 17 man and he guys in front of him are faster than him just like he just getting faster and the fastest guy who's trying to tackle him um and i love following his trainer by the way on twitter during games guys he's very fired up about when mohammed does some good things with his legs um yeah look it's the same when you're clunkers absolutely but at the times that any semblance of offense the chiefs get blown out of offense, the Chiefs would get

blown out in that game. So they got lucky that Willis really not ready to play quarterback in the NFL right now. It's okay. It's not a bad thing. He just is not.

And the Titans too, like didn't, and Collinsworth had mentioned this during the game too, like they really didn't design a game plan that was great for him.

It's almost like they thought Tannehill would play this weekend. And obviously Tannehill didn't. So I'm kind of curious like if they fully game plan that was great for him. It's almost like they thought Tannehill would play this weekend. And obviously Tannehill didn't. So I'm kind of curious, like if they fully game plan for him, what it would look like. I know we're not talking about them really at all today, but the Bears, man, like what they've done with Justin Fields and say, look, we're just going to run an offense that suits you, buddy.

Like we're going to take the ego out of it. We're going to get you on the move. We're going to get you some easy passes, remove the pocket a little bit, to get you on the move. We're going to get you some easy passes, remove the pocket a little bit, or get you on the run. And I wish more teams just admit that. Like Tennessee, that's been their game plan. Go watch the Ravens.

Go watch the Bears. Like go do something that gets Malik Willis on the edge, which in the first half, the Chiefs look clueless. Now the Chiefs, to their credit, second half came out and defended those zone reads much better. But they really didn't have any play action off of those. They didn't have any fun wrinkles off of those.

It just didn't look like they had a big game plan specifically for what Malik Willis can do on the field. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about a guy who's at the other end of his career. This is no fun to bring up. So Tom Brady, like basically just punched my son in the face yesterday. The Rams had the game one. My son, my wife, they were all celebrating. They were like, the game's over. It's like, no, it's not. They have to punt the ball back. Tom Brady is going to have it with 50 seconds to go. He's going to be way too close to midfield.

Guys, this is not going to go our way. Well, Tom Brady did Tom Brady things. They go, what, 60 yards in about 35 seconds. They score as time runs out. He looks happy. He's joking at the podium. It's very easy for us all to say, like, yeah, look at that. He finishes off the divorce.

He's a changed man. Look how happy he is. But truthfully, winning is all that makes Tom Brady happy. Are we in store for a whole second half of Tom Brady being Tom Brady? I don't know. I just, there are a lot of problems on this team. I actually put my kids to bed when the Rams punted. All right.

I wish I had. And I came back. That's just like, wait, the bucks scored and i just was in awe i with the rams right uh i i don't know what the rams were doing on that final possession so the bucks are broken man like their offense is broken they, terrible, terrible play sequencing. There was a point in that game they went run on first down, then run for zero yards on second down, complete third down.

That went three straight times until they got an incomplete pass on third down and missed a field goal. They keep running plays that do not work. It's like they don't self-scout game. Like, not at all. They're like, oh, we're gonna run duo some more, which is a very popular play in the NFL. Tampa Bay stinks at

running duo. Yet they keep running it. Where's the play action pass out? Every time they have to throw the ball in this game, like, forced to throw the ball, they move the ball. Like, let Tom be more Tom Brady. There's also a weird amount of drops this season by Mike Evans and the rest of the wide receivers. The offensive line isn't great. Brady doesn't want to get hit. They just

look sort of broken. And while I think it's easy to say, well, yeah, this is their wake-up call. They scored 13 points. It wasn't great. Yeah, they scored at the end. Great. They won the game. But they scored 13 points, Gabe. I don't think there's some great awakening that's going to happen with this Bucs offense now. I'm happy to hear you say that I don't think there's some great awakening that's going to happen with this Bucs offense now. I'm happy to hear you say that you don't think that this is the beginning of some giant change. I'm interested in what you said about self-scouting because I know you've talked about that a little bit before. I think I know kind of what you mean. But just for some listeners who might be like, wait, what's he talking about?

Give us a little bit more on that. You kind of get like a breakdown, right? Like this is the funny part about analytics. Like we keep using analytics. Like this has happened forever, right? This is analytics. talking about give us a little bit more on that you kind of get like a breakdown right like this is the funny part of analytics like we keep using analytics like this has happened forever right this is analytics hey this play works this play doesn't and then you don't run the play that stinks and you run the play that works like it's pretty simple right yeah and it's clear that the bucks don't do that like otherwise they wouldn't run some of the plays they do that they they stink running so when you say they it's clear they don't do it,

do you think that they're just like, ah, we don't need to watch our own tape. Let's just worry about the opponent. Do you think that they watch it and don't learn the right thing? Like, what do you think is going on? I think that they hope that it starts working again. And if they keep running it enough, it will eventually work, which feels unlikely after eight weeks or nine weeks now to be a thing, Gabe.

It feels like they're trying to force it to work. That's what it feels like to me. They're trying to force it to work, and they're not breaking tendencies enough. They're just not. It looks like a team that isn't. They also wasted 40 seconds in the first half. Like Todd Bowles just didn't call a timeout.

Like they just look poorly coached sometimes, man. Defense looks good though. Yeah. And yet in the not even, you know, two minute drill, in the one minute drill, when Tom Brady is running a no huddle and everything is spiked run out of bounds or the deep ball it was flawless i i have to admit like i i hated it but it all looked exactly like brady and only brady was in charge of those 50 seconds do you think that's true does he think anyone's even in his in his headset like does he need a

single word from anyone else on that staff in those final you know that final minute no that's true does he think anyone's even in his in his headset like does he need a single word from anyone else on that staff in those final you know that final minute no that's all he's just calling those by himself no there's no nothing in his headset so those are those are his reads he knows those scenarios he's got scotty miller he knows where yeah i'm pretty sure i'm pretty sure that coach might be able might say like run this play i mean i mean i haven't listened to communications in a two-minute drill ever so so I don't know. But I think the quarterback's just calling those, especially at that age, by himself. We have a package of eight to ten plays at the most. And maybe with how they kind of do offense now,

you can hand-send a little more plays. But you sort of just generally have eight to ten two-minute plays, and you just roll through them in a two-minute drill. They're numbered, not very hard. And he's just better at it. So, all right. So you're saying they're not, this is not like the rise of some zombie from the dead. They're still not great.

I don't think so. I almost put this more on the Rams defense, just kind of like giving it up. But it looked just, it just looked, it looked bad. Like they just, they went very soft for some reason. They played really well until that point. Yeah. went very soft for some reason they played really well until that point yeah i i don't know why why so many nfl teams are so comfortable giving up yards in those situations like i don't know what they i think they needed a touchdown and you're okay with allowing yards if the clock

continues to tick but you can't allow 40 yard passes like that's the problem is they allowed giant chunk and you can't commit penalties in the end zone and put them on the one yard line. You know, like you just can't do that. No, you're right. No, you're right. You're right. I think the narrative on McVay is going to change. And I think he's very good at making it.

It's constantly about like his terms and when he might retire and when the core group is gone, then he's going to hang it up. And he always makes it seem like it's his call. The fact is, the fact is the guy is like having a real stinker of a season following a super bowl he's been out coached a few places like i think people are going to start to criticize sean mcveigh soon um not this year uh he's he won with jared goff like i think he gets a few more years of grace they're gonna knock the rams team building approach to future success right because it's obviously it was very one and done like we got our champion which great they won i'm not knocking them for winning but

they're not building some sort of like dynasty here then they're gonna end up with not a lot of draft picks and not a lot of core players in a few years yeah all right elite elite core players they'll have core players but like elite guys under rookie contracts they don't have that right now yeah well the exact same number of people in la will care when they're bad as correct they're good so it doesn't matter um okay let's talk about this team that i i'm so conflicted here jeff because i i really for the last few weeks i've said i'm not falling for it with the jets but now i see everyone in mainstream media, and probably you included, are starting to talk themselves into this Jets team being good.

Here's what I see. Here's the take from me. The solid Jets are the Rex Jets with an even worse quarterback. That's all this is. So they happen to be 6-3 right now. They beat the Bills. That is kind of surprising. But this is not a good team that can win anything in the postseason can you please explain that to all the talking heads that your buddies with on all the other yeah they're not because their quarterback's not uh good enough

uh but their defense is really good and that's going to keep them in a lot of games and the difference obviously is in those playoff games your quarterback's got to got to make plays for you and the jets don't have that and i tweeted out yesterday that the Bills are going to have the Jets' loss and the Chiefs have the Colts' loss as stinkers on their schedule. People are like, oh, the Jets. Don't put them in the same category as the Colts. The Bills were 10 and a half point favorites on the road. Vegas told you what they thought about you, the Jets fans.

I didn't set the line. Vegas did. And you didn't force those turnovers by Josh Allen. 2019 Josh Allen showed up. The first one, I don't know what he's doing. The defender was standing right there. The second one, I don't know. The offensive player went to the left.

Josh threw it to the right. I don't know. So, yeah, the Jets run the ball well against Buffalo, which you have to do, but also you can do that when you're not allowing points and just defense is really good game. They're really good. I have a stat here. I pulled up just for you because I knew you're, you're sucked back in as a jets fan. I'm not, I'm not watching last season.

The jets blitz on 46% of their third downs, highest rate in the league. They finished 28th in the third down pressure rate this year. They've only pressured on 28% of third, excuse me, 20% of third downs, and they have the second highest pressure rate in the league on third downs. Like, they're getting the passer on third down. Like, they're affecting the quarterback in important

situations. And that's why I think they're having success right now. But again, if a team scores, you know, 28 points, the Jets are probably not winning that game. But again, if a team scores 28 points, the Jets are probably not winning that game. No, no shot. And by the way, I don't know how to make sense of this like you do,

but here's my gut. When you're good in the interior defensive line, you can create pressure on a quarterback even without great blitz schemes or great pass rushers. And when you have Sauce basically creating a new Rivas Island, well, you got an extra guy to play with. So no shit. Yeah. I made it very clear that I do not study cornerbacks, right?

That's not my scope of study when it comes to the football. But people that I trust, I mean, they say Sauce might be the best corner in the NFL already. Yeah. I mean, he's that good. So I would trust their opinion over that than mine, which, again, I'm not breaking down cornerback play. He's a very good player, and he seems like a very good guy,

and I'm glad he's on the Jets. And maybe if they get a real quarterback, I will allow myself to root for them again. But until that happens, I'm not. Rich Eisen, he can stand for them all he wants. He points out a stat. Yeah, and your mentions. He's in there talking about how the Jets aren't fluky.

They're 4-0 against teams with a winning record. What do you have to say to that? I love Rich. Rich is fantastic. I've signed his Jewish Sports Hall of Fame book. There's like four of us in there. It's like me, Mitch, and two other Jews. That's not a real thing.

It's not a real stat. That's like saying he's a Michigan fan. The Michigan Wolverines beat, let's use Hawaii, for example, who's not any good, but let's say they beat Hawaii in week three at home, and Hawaii was ranked 25th at the time. And now they're three and five, and you claim that as a ranked win. No, that doesn't work that way. It's not a ranked win, all right?

It's what are the teams ranked now? That's how we qualify those in college football, right? So that's what Rich is trying to do. Well, we played them there 1-0. Okay. There were 2-1 when we played them. Okay. They're 3-5 now.

Whatever. The Dolphins had a third-string quarterback in that game. Like, I don't – that doesn't count. Like, when the Jets play the Dolphins, the Dolphins have a third string quarterback in that game like i i don't that doesn't count as a it's a like when the jets play the dolphins the dogs are third string quarterback i like you know i mean like i just come on man i i get it i get the jets are better than we give them credit for i'm in agreement there but i figured you would like that stat game it's a very gabe goodwin stat very like a very defensive don't do that that you're you're trying you're teasing here what we're going to get to with tua don't start calling things gabe goodwin but okay one thing

about about are we doing two an hour later when we get into tua well i you know it depends we wanted the mood to be up down when do you want to cover it's just my my whole thing with like it's more that the fans of the internet and i shouldn't take this like this way like but they make it hard to root for their favorite players like i'll tweet about some other subject and all four dolphins fans my mentions being like talking about two i'm like i'm not talking about your guy man like it makes it hard to root for teams when fan bases obsess over whether or not i talk about their team and how nice they talk about them. That's all I'm going to say. Tua's playing great. Dolphins are playing great in

offense. Tyreek Hill's been fantastic. Jaden Wall's been fantastic. Does Tua throw some ducks? Yes. His offense is not the best. It's fine to say that. It's also fine to acknowledge he's playing well in the offense. They score a ton of points. They're going to be hard to beat this season. Defense, I don't know. Gave a ton of points. They're going to be hard to beat this season. Defense, I don't know. Give a lot of points to the Bears. Some of that was a little fluky. But like Tua's playing well, Gabe. Yeah, he's playing well.

But when Dolphins fans come to my mentions and just spew like nonsense and also, I don't know. Ocho must be getting paid by the Dolphins. I don't know. There's no other explanation for it. I don't know. Good for you, buddy. Ocho and I are paid by the Dolphins. I don't know. There's no other explanation for it. I don't know what. Good for you, buddy. Ocho and I are boys.

I can say this. Like, good for you, man. Just like, I want some money from like the Chiefs for defending the Chiefs all the time. Or the Ducks. Oregon, throw me some money my way, man. The Tua stuff is just hard, man. People are, he's playing well. Like, just accept it for what it is.

He's playing well. He's undefeated. And he keeps on putting up three and four touchdown games. And it seems like people go out of their way to clip the one underthrown ball he has every game and say that's who he is. Because here's the issue with that, is that the way people talk about him in the terms they do when they say he's better than X player. He's the most accurate player in the NFL. Well, if you say those things, you can't underthrow three balls a game. say he's better than X player. He's the most accurate player in the NFL. Well, if you say those things, you can't under throw three balls a game.

Like that's the problem. You can't, you can't duff a ball, throw a worm hopper on fourth and one. I think it was fourth and one when he threw that ball, like three yards short of an open wide receiver. You know, you can't, you know, you're trying to salt the game away and while it's open for a touchdown, you under throw him by three yards. You're trying to salt the game away, and Waddle's open for a touchdown. The under thrown by three yards. That's what sets apart the good quarterbacks and the elite quarterbacks.

And the way people talk about Tua now, and I get it. It's an overreaction to the way we used to talk about Tua, right? We kind of undersold him. Now people are overselling him. So when he has a bad play, Gabe, it's magnified. You're like, no, no, no. See, see, see. I told you.

Like, those, like, we just got, Tua's good. He's playing good football. Is he better than Mahomes? No. The discussion really is more about Herbert and Tua. I'll tell you what. If you put Herbert in Mike McDaniel's offense, who, buddy? That's, Herbert made some throws yesterday that were incredible it's like no one ryan out there he threw that ball on the slot that one time that kind of slot seam i mean a thousand

miles an hour and so i just like i kind of want to see herbert a different offense but let's just enjoy the quarterbacks man let's enjoy them okay yeah let's enjoy when guys are undefeated and and our predictions. I mean, this is what you're going to pick the Jets to defeat the Dolphins. Then Jets Dolphins. What's your prediction there? I would bet against the Jets in every game that they played the rest of the season. I'm sure I would make money. Okay.

Jets have a buy. And then it's New England. Chicago. The feisty Vikings. Seven-1, I think, Buffalo, Lions, Jaguars, Seahawks, and Week 18, Dolphins, Jets for a wild card spot. Yeah, I'm not taking the Jets. The Jets aren't going to be the team at that time.

I'm sorry. And I like Coach. I do. They took that kid number two overall, and he isn't it. And so until they figure that out, they're just going to be stuck where they are. It's the same problem with Rex. It's the exact same thing all over again. You know? Okay. I believe you. And you know what? Like Mark Sanchez has turned into one of my favorite analysts on TV. He's awesome. He's awesome. Maybe Zach will be good at that one day too,

but he's not going to be good at winning an AFC championship game. So, sorry. One last thing about the Jets here in relation to Buffalo. News started spreading around social media, a little bit of confirmation. Josh Allen dealing with an elbow problem at UCL, the common ligament that tears for Tommy John. It's different in football than baseball. The throwing motion kind of changes how the injury is looked at.

But when we hear the coach say like, hey, we'll give you more information, 24 hours, we're gathering information, they know already. So the information they're gathering is what do we do now? Does he play through it? Does he get it fixed? Is he going to be fine with an injection? That's what they're doing now. So I would worry, if I'm a bills fan about this it doesn't feel great and he even

threw a ball 70 yards with this elbow pain which is incredible um i want to load up a little bit on those dolphins futures as well in the afc it doesn't sound good i hope he's fine for the sake of josh allen i like watching him play for the sake of Buffalo, but something to watch out. Josh Allen's elbow could be an issue moving forward. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll hit some serious stuff because I really want your point of view on some news away from the NFL. And then we got a few

big names we somehow haven't mentioned. Aaron Rodgers yet. We've got some college football talk to get to. Let's do all that after the break. All right, Jeff, we're back. We're going to move the line in a second. That's the all over under game that we play. But before we do that, this is a nice chance in this format. You're not in a rush here to kind of unpack what your view on everything going on with Kyrie Irving has been. You know, I think most people are aware

he shared some content that is considered anti-Semitic. He then refused to explain himself or apologize and eventually was suspended by his own team. You know, his image has taken a real hit. I think most would agree it's deserving, but it's a complicated story and I want to know what you think. Yeah, I'm less concerned about how the Nets dealt with that and kind of more concerned about other athletes echoing what Kyrie is talking about

and sharing at least and kind of the uptick we've seen in athletes. I'm specifically going to kind of stick to sports here because there are a rise in anti-Semitic kind of thoughts and violence and threats around our country anyways. And just kind of my perspective on the athlete part of this, because kj wright basically was like well you know hillary might be a bad guy but like listen what he has to say like what what what cool was even real too like what are we doing what are we doing guys and when deshaun jackson made his comments a few years ago he was just on instagram actually instagram stories I said that it was a lack of education, right, Gabe? And I still believe that. People do not understand Judaism.

And when we see as Jews, people try to define us as a race, right? Which is kind of what that is, the race of Jews. And when you say, well, they're not the actual Jews. We're the actual Jews. You're making us a race. That's what happened in Germany, right? Bad things happen when you define Jews as a race. We're a religion. We have Jews of many different colors and backgrounds, ethnicities, regions, like from all over the place, okay? And so when you kind of just put us in this box, that's how bad things have started in our history, right?

And that's how that's how bad things have started in our history right i mean that's what what bothers jews i'm not speaking for all jews just myself is like it's a lack of education and then when you say these things that put us in this box that's how bad things have started in our history right and if you if we don't come out and say like hey that's bad and i think part of it is because it didn't happen in America, right? It happened in Europe. And I think for a lot of people, they're just not educated in what happened in the Holocaust. Like, you hear about it, but, like, if you go to a Holocaust memorial museum, man, you can't leave, Gabe, feeling any other way than, like, it was real and, like, it happened. You know what I mean? Like, I just, I think, going back, it's like a lack of education, which bothers me. I can't keep saying that. I know I do. it was real and like it happened and they were i just you know i mean like i just i think i go

back it's like a lack of education which bothers me i can't keep saying that i know i do i i know it feels i'm letting guys off the hook but i'm kind of tired of doing that i'm really not like guys have got to be educated now you have to stop if you're going to be able if you're going to talk about you know is these are fake quotes i can't even talk about a fake hitler quote like that's not even a real quote but if we're going to go down these roads, discredit Judaism and discredit the Jews, you must know what you're talking about. And guys have no idea what they're talking about. And so I think that's why Jews are upset.

And look, we're easy to pick on, small minority group, easy to blame Jews for what's happening, even though most of it's all of it i would argue complete nonsense um and again like i just it's lack of knowledge about jews and it's not a hard religion either i don't understand like not a hard religion buddy i don't know why people have trouble with it so much um kind of my take on it um i refuse to comment on twitter because twitter is a hellhole now and that does no good to comment on twitter so this is my kind of comment on on this um i wish guys would educate themselves before they speak um words do matter it's how we go down the wrong path to start with and when you use the rhetoric that players have used recently, Jews look at it as a threat because they've seen it happen before.

You know, look, man, I don't know when you were in Hebrew school, like you had a teacher that had, you know, like, like, you know, a concentration camp, like tattoo. Like when you like when you see that, man, like how it's real, like these are real things that happen. When you see that, man, it's real. These are real things that happen. And that's, I think, why Jews get really upset. And there's not a lot of voices for us that speak up. And maybe they need to do more on Twitter. I don't know.

I just feel like it's a really bad place to start getting these type of topics in these discussions. Yeah. Yeah, well said. I'm curious, you know, in what Kyrie will do when he rejoins his team. Kyrie, look, the thing about Kyrie, too, like, he doesn't give a shit about apologizing. He just apologized to get back on the team. Like, come on. He could have apologized two weeks ago.

Like, I don't believe apologies 10 days later. Like, Deshaun Jackson went and talked to a Holocaust survivor. Like, he at least did the things he said he was going to do. I don't believe Kyrie really gives a shit. You know, Kyrie just apologized and apologized. Well, I think he resents the idea that people can force him to apologize. And I think if I'm, I don't know, what worries me a little bit, Jeff? Look, I know what Nick said, and we talked about what Nick Wright said. It was great, okay?

And I do appreciate Nick Wright's support. Emmanuel Acho has been great on this subject. James Brown this weekend, great. It was James Brown, I think, right, on CBS? Great. Thank you. I appreciate that. But I don't know, man. The apology just didn't seem very authentic. It happened so late in the process after he lost everything suspended

endorsements, money. Like it just, at that point, it feels like you're apologizing for making people upset. Yeah. But, and,

and I think what worries me is that that will in some circular logic, in some roundabout way, uh, in his mind, prove that some of his initial point or points people like him have made are true the notion that you know he's you know the commissioner's jewish the owners of teams are jewish the media has jewish members and then he right I know and so but my worry is that he is sort of interpreted as being forced to apologize by these people because he doesn't agree with them instead of being forced to apologize for not knowing what you're talking about and then refusing to learn

that that's certainly a fair take on on Tyree like I think about this topic too I always joke with Duke we've had on before like why are we not included in this Jewish cabal of like elites that control the world game like where's where's my invite I got I played NFL for eight years I got some money I got some power like where's my invite to this like Jewish cabal of wizards that control the money and the weather and and make all the policies in the world and control social media and the media and the print media and politics like where's my invite to this like where i want one hey if anyone's listening invite me to this secret group of jews that control the whole world i just like it's such bullshit dude it's like ridiculous all right well we'll keep an eye on it i'm glad you have this show to to say what you want to say about those

types of issues let's switch back to football and some sillier stuff. So stories from the Packers seemingly came in, come straight from their front office, leaked this week about all the amazing trade offers they made to try to get some weapons for Aaron Rodgers. I want to know over under 175 different leaks to try to get the narrative out there that the front office tried to help Aaron Rodgers um so funny dude um the Packers lead the league in

what ifs and almost we almost got this guy and I was reminded when I tweeted out the Celtics are that way in basketball Danny Ainge is in every conversation. Man, the Packers. Most quarterbacks don't age gracefully. Like, this is what happens when quarterbacks get old.

They just sort of, like, start to stink. And it surprises all of us all the time. And Rodgers is there now, right? There's no explanation. He is there. He's officially there, Gabe. He had a couple under throws that were incredibly bad, that were un-Rodgers-like.

The one to Bakhtiari in that tackle pass, he's like four yards short. The one later in the game, I think Lazard was wide open for a touchdown under through him. I'm not sure that any amount of wide receiver is going to help. I mean, the thing with Devonta Adams, I guess, is that he was open quicker and the ball got out and there was some zip to it, but

Rodgers just looks like he's not as good anymore. And that happens when you get older. The problem is the Packers paid him a lot of money to be good for two or three more years. Yeah, I don't know. And then you count him out, and then he comes back and does something incredible again. You know, like, we'll spend the next

half of the year crapping all over aaron rogers trying to bury him and then he'll get he's got that kairi side too he'll be a contrarian he'll be defiant and he'll come back next year and he'll be an mvp like there's just no way to know with this guy i but like my my thing is like is he after the season's over okay is he gonna want to play football anymore no i don't know if he wants to play football now but the point is he he will do the opposite of what people tell him he should or what people want he's not going to do whatever the obvious thing is so if the obvious thing is what a hell of a career hall of fame career great football player played a lot longer than most people would have expected,

made a ton of money. Yeah. So his last year wasn't so good, but he should walk away while he still got his health. That would be what normal people would say. He's not going to do that. Maybe. I don't know.

I, I, I, he just seems like miserable out there. So does Tom Brady. Well, Tom Brady showed some life this week we'll see uh you know who does not have any chance at all of making it through this season because normally by now cliff kingsbury is like coach of the year candidate and then we

this is about when the collapse begins but he's already he's gone yeah he's yeah so the quarterback doesn't seem like he likes him he's long past his stay anyway in arizona so how many how many more games over under two and a half before we hear about cliff kingsbury losing his job um pretty imagine pretty close at rams home against the niners rams are really bad home against the Niners. The Rams are really bad. Home against the Chargers. He might beat the Rams. He might beat the Rams. Then he would have Niners, Chargers, and the Pats. Probably after the Chargers are just a freaking mess.

Who knows about them? Rams, Chargers, Niners. Niners on Monday Night Football. If he gets embarrassed, if he loses at the Rams and gets embarrassed by the Niners at home on Monday Night Football, he might be gone after that. I think that's it. And then, so then listen, if you get the interim in,

the final stretch of the season has a few winnable games potentially. It's got to be, look, if you're going to do, let's see, who's the funniest interim head coach Arizona could have? Like if they bring like Emmitt Smith. Well, I was going to say, if we're going off the Jeff Saturday news, I think it's got to be like Carson Palmer. I was going to say, I was going to say Larry Fitzgerald. Yeah.

But that wouldn't irritate people the way that Carson Palmer would. Oh, oh, oh yeah. Okay. We're on that angle. Yeah. Oh, Emmitt Smith wouldn't irritate people. So it's got to be someone like Kurt Warner, right? Yeah.

Kurt Warner, Kurt Warner, Cardinals. he's just a mike mikey yeah the former left guard just comes uh what did they oh you know the answer is very easily player coach jj watt oh let's bring back the player i would put up with jj watt as a player coach if it meant we're bringing back player coaches in all sports. I love it. All right. That'd be incredible. Wouldn't it be a great idea. All right,

Jeff SEC teams in the college football playoff over under one and a half. It's a complicated answer. Now after this weekend, well, here's the question. So Alabama's out. Georgia will beat LSU in the, in the,

in the title game or Alabama either will be either one of those. So Georgia's in the question becomes one loss, Tennessee or one loss pack 12 champion. Right? So don't skip ahead. Don't skip ahead. Give me your other assumptions or TCU, I guess.

So it's, so it's going to be Georgia, right? You're going to say Georgia's your sec champ and they're undefeated so they're the one ohio state of michigan sure whoever wins that game then wins the big 10 championship that's two that's two so then there's two slots left okay so tcu oregon usc and technically ucla is still in there, and Tennessee. But hold on. Let's call it what it is.

You're saying TCU is an undefeated Big 12 champ with multiple ranked wins. No, they're in. No, I'm just talking about the teams that are in the race. TCU is in if they're undefeated, yes. Yeah, okay. So then that's TCU. That's three. That's the three.

So then there's only one spot left right so i just mentioned it's either tennessee or pac-12 champion if the pac-12 champ has one loss all right and so if it's oregon who beat usc in the championship game well they're gonna beat ucla again because usc and being ucla um so oregon will have been um a ranked ranked UCLA twice in this scenario. Utah, Washington, Oregon State. Oregon State and Washington may or may not be ranked at the end of the season. Washington's ranked now. The Beavers were ranked.

They might be by three weeks. Who knows? And they will have the Georgia loss. But they have won 12 games in a row. 12 games in a row. USC would have been UCLA in two weeks,

Notre Dame in the last week of the season, and Oregon or Utah. I take that back. So the way the tiebreakers work in this game is if Utah beats Oregon, they're rematching the Pac-12 championship game

if they both win the rest of their games. So USC, UCLA are even out at that point. So if Utah beats Oregon and Oregon doesn't lose to anyone else, it's Utah-Oregon again in the Pac-12 championship game. So let's just, for the sake of this, they beat UCLA, Notre Dame, and Oregon to end the season. Three straight, right?

They're probably in over Tennessee. USC is in over Tennessee. 12-1 with wins over UCLA, Notre Dame, and Oregon to end the season. Yeah, and they're only lost being like a nail-biter against a good team. So, yeah, they're definitely. The problem with Oregon is that Tennessee is a better loss to georgia yeah okay so tennessee i think would be ahead of oregon in that in that respect which is silly i think tennessee i think like that was four months ago by that point yeah yeah but i mean nix has played so much better the last few games

okay so so what we're really talking about here is if you're a Pac-12 fan rooting for your champ to get in, you need to see TCU lose because then it takes the Big 12 out of the equation. Right? Then they don't take a seat. You need, obviously, Notre Dame helped you out by beating Clemson.

I think we can assume Clemson, even when they win the ACC, is out this year, right? We're just sitting them out for one? Clemson's done, we can assume Clemson, even when they win the ACC is out this year, right? We're just sitting them out for, for one. That was just done. Yeah, they're done. Okay.

Um, is there any scenario where Michigan beats Ohio state? Ohio state sitting there with one loss. It's only to Michigan. Michigan wins the big 10. No, they're still not in. So they're there.

Cause they would have, Tennessee would get that kind of logic before they got it. Yes. Okay. All right. That broke it down for me. So I think the answer was one SEC team this year. I would –

Well, you're assuming – But I think UCLA beats USC, so it's going to be – I'd go over that. Tennessee would be in that situation. Because you think Tennessee versus an Oregon Pac pac-12 champ both with one loss tennessee sitting home on championship weekend they get it yeah yeah i don't think so i think it's oregon i think the regionality i think that the well i thought but we're not important though right like we're not good enough to be like in a in a big conference like we're not we don't value so tennessee is

more valuable than we are. If you say so. I wasn't trying to say that. Philly lost two championships in a day on Saturday, which is hilarious. I just wanted to say that. What I really have to ask though is 50-50 chance

the Astros repeat. Mattress Mac will be happy if they repeat. I was happy for Dusty Baker, man. I mean, I still never forgive him for taking that ball from Russell Ortiz in 2002, but good for him to finally win a championship. Oh, no. Who cares?

Baseball's over for the season. Like, whatever. As long as it's not the Dodgers. Wow. Just who cares? No Dodgers. I'm happy for Dusty Baker. Trey Mancini, great story.

Happy for him. You know, Verlander 39 years old with an ER-102. Ridiculous. I actually didn't know that he was still married to Kate Upton. I thought that was like, I just forgot about that. Then she was like flipping off Philly fans in the crowd, getting into it. That was pretty fun to see.

Good for the Astros. Who cares along with the dodgers okay that's uh that's baseball for you then um i think we did it jeff we covered the whole league and a little extra are you excited about college basketball starting today are you like you go get your your gal Galen center tickets? Yeah. USC starts their, starts their season Monday. Um, no, I'm, I'm, uh, I can't even pretend to be a fair weather fan of college basketball until March. I, I'll probably take my kids to a game this year just to start getting them in the rhythm of that. But, uh, let's be fair.

You're going to probably be voting for that game. Not the Galen center. Actually, I'm going to probably go to Loyola Marymount, where the tickets cost a couple bucks since the family doesn't necessarily know the products they're watching. I might as well. But that's also the furthest one away, though, too.

No, LMU is right in my neighborhood, brother. It is? Yeah, Playa. I didn't realize it was there. We used to play baseball games there for the four people that care about this topic. They have a giant, like, green monster in left field. We used to play, like, Legion games there, the massive field, baseball field. All right.

Let me cover it all. We did it. Powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. Please rate, review, subscribe. Hey, 4-0-1 this week. Into the green on the gambling side, everybody. Pac-12 plays, by the way, 5-1 this week. 24-16 on the year

for those. I'm now above 70% all-time for those, which is just incredibly ridiculous. So, yeah, tune in later this week. We'll try to give you some more winners. Matt and I are doing well so far this year. Take care, everybody. Talk to you guys in a few days.