Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Crowning the New GOAT and Other Super Bowl Takeaways

Episode Date: February 14, 2024

The Chiefs are Champs! Geoff is joined by Gabe to break down every angle of Super Bowl 58, starting with what we all already knew: Mahomes is really good at football. Also, Kyle Shanahan, Trent McDuffie, Chris Jones, Andy Reid, Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift, Usher, Ice Spice, Ben Affleck AND Matt Damon all had big weekends, tune in to the only podcast that will make you smarter about all of it.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to Jeff Schwartz's Smarter Than You. It is me, Jeff Schwartz, alongside Gabe Ginn. We're live on Twitter, YouTube. It's two days after the Super Bowl, Gabe. We have plenty to talk about. I go to Vegas a lot. I leave sick for some reason. I don't drink.

I don't know why. I don't know how that is. But if I'm huffing and puffing through this got a little chest cold buddy i'm gonna make it through because the canada chiefs are super bowl champions again for the third time in five years uh the dynasty is now complete for the chiefs does it bother you gave the chiefs one again i feel like you're no it doesn't bother me at all and i'm i want a little more energy out of you come on you're the chiefs i can't i i can't breathe that's like i i went to walk the dog this morning it was like just huffing and puffing a little chest cold a little coughing up some some nasty phlegm and stuff you know it's tough for me to go right now i'm playing i'm playing hurt

it sounds like uh if you were heading into overtime in the super bowl your coach would uh not want to throw you out there on defense to give you a little bit of a break. Maybe there's some decision-making here, Jeff. People know when their guys are gassed. He would. He would, yeah. Well, let's start at the most obvious place, which is that, I'll say it,

Pat Mahomes ended the GOAT debate. I get it. He's only got three. Tom Brady has seven but the three and five years and being the singular reason that they win each time that they do all credit to the defense but come on it's a Pat team I think we have to just say it he is the goat and unless he just stops playing football in his 30s he will chip away at the chips that Tom Brady has, and his run has been more impressive. It's impressive.

Look, the whole debate, Gabe, between who's the best and who's not, I know that's what we do now. So just appreciating what we have just watched. Yeah, I'm appreciating it. What? I'm appreciating it because you are making it more and more enjoyable and the thing too about about mahomes is he's fairly likable like he's not he just is likable i mean he's drinking beer and smoking cigars after the game like he seems

like the picture of him after the game like at disneyland he's very clearly not slept and been drinking all night. I mean, very relatable, I think, guy to a lot of us. Look, there's been different modes for Mahomes so far in his career, right? There's been the gunslinger, right? The three-jet wasp guy who slings the ball down the field. Last year, you know, it was not the best offense, but he's working with the weapons he had. He was still trying to make an offense after that re-kill. Then this year, for lack of a better term, we got game manager Mahomes.

We've had different modes of Mahomes. When it comes down to winning the game, he knows how to win the game, whether it's with his legs, with his arm, making the right decision. Quite frankly, Gabe, not making the wrong decision. The interception was bad. I don't know if the ball was to Kelsey or someone else. That was his worst part of the game obviously kelsey was open there he just didn't make the play but it's also too on andy reed knowing okay game i've watched every snap this season of the chiefs they have not run patrick mahomes on rpo the entire season they did it

obviously one time for 22 yards that was a straight rpo he's reading the defensive end then they ran a bootleg once they found out that boss is going to run down the line which not on They did it, obviously, one time for 22 yards. That was a straight RPO. He's reading the defensive end. Then they ran a bootleg once they found out that Bosa's going to run down the line, which is not on Bosa's ball. That's the defensive structure because, guess what? You haven't had to check Patrick Mahomes running the ball at all because he hasn't had to run. He's done it all season, right? Obviously, the third iteration, that was the final play of the game.

Look, I'm going to put out a video on this, but Logan Ryan was just sort of like in a blender. He was the third time he had seen sort of that same action the first two homes kept it and then he came up and then boom hartman's open so it's a combination of andy reed mahomes you know kelsey oh boy tiktok got a weird place with kelsey uh yelling andy reed oh like fast but he was it was very odd. But, you know, his passion and then, again, like his long run there at the end of the regulation game is the fastest he'd run in

like seven seasons. I mean, like they all just sort of step their game up in these moments and they make the plays necessary. And yes, luck is important. We talk about it all the time. Luck is important, but they capitalize on the muff punt, right? Not really a muff per se, but they capitalize on these moments where the Niners got a turnover, a bad pass.

They didn't score, you know, Gabe? So it's all these things that Chiefs continue to do, and it's because Patrick Mahomes can do anything they ever want anytime, and the confidence you play with that allows them to keep winning these games. They're very well coached. One thing, too, and I'm kind of rambling here, but like Steve Spagnuolo, to be able to have him stay each year, Gabe, because he's not getting a head coaching job, is hugely important for them.

Think about every team that has a coordinator that is good. The Ravens, Mike McDonald, boom, out of there, right? D'Amico Ryans, Robert Sala, out of San Francisco. Like these coordinators, they're gone quickly. Steve Spagnuolo is like 62 years old. He's already been a head coach. He's not going to be head coach ever again. So you get to keep maybe the best outside of Belichick,

possibly the best defensive coordinator, not like head coach, but defensive coordinator of all time, Gabe. He's one of the only coordinators to win. He might be the only one to win a Super Bowl on two teams. He's the only one that's won four as a coordinator. So all this melds together into the Chiefs winning these Super Bowls. Yeah. I mean, let's use that point as a jump off in two ways. The lesson we learned from Pat Mahomes winning the first couple of times was, or the first time I should say, was, wow, look how great your team can be if you're playing with an all-time great quarterback on a rookie contract.

This podcast has spent plenty of time talking about the advantage that gives you. Is the new lesson in the league going to be, find yourself a defensive coordinator that can't or won't go anywhere else, and then you know you have stability and a whole side of the ball improves every single year. Like in spags, we trust has been all we've heard for about a week and a half. And rightfully so. Is that the recipe? Um,

I mean, look, yeah. If you get lucky about that. Um, but like, that's, that's luck is not the right word, but they sort of just fell into that. Right. Andy Reed's, that's, luck is not the right word,

but they sort of just fell into that, right? Andy Reid had known Spags. They had crossed paths before. And, you know, he, he had just,

it was the perfect opportunity. They fired Bob Sutton, who had done a good job, but not, not good enough. You know, it's sort of, you hire Vic Fangio.

How many guys in their 60s are, Eagles are doing right now, hire Vic Fangio, right? I mean, you just don't get a lot of these guys. I'll tell you what, I won't be the first person to say this. I mean, Koshy and I should call Bill Belichick and have him be the OC for the Niners. Like, I think that certainly if that's the idea, Gabe,

to have these older coaches come back as OCs, I'm with you there. I just don't know if they're going to do it. Is Belichick going to say, you know what, I'll be the DC for the Niners for a season, and then I'll come back and be a head coach after a year? I don't know. Spag's obviously very chill with just being the DC. Yeah, well, also, I mean,

I don't see Bill Belichick being anyone's number two. And let's take it to Kyle Shanahan for a minute. We'll bounce around a little bit. So obviously a lot of the commentary right after the game, and then especially on Monday when people had time to digest it all, was the decision he made in overtime and the belief that some people have that he and maybe his players don't fully understand the newest rules for overtime in the playoffs.

And I guess I would say, of course, he knows the rules, and it's on him to articulate that to his team. But aren't we kind of just getting lost in the sauce with this conversation? Doesn't it just come down to plays? Wasn't a few guys admitting they didn't know the rules? Does that really even matter, Jeff? You played for a million years. You probably knew all the rules. You had teammates who didn't know the rules. Does that really even matter, Jeff? Like, you played for a million years. You probably knew all the rules.

You had teammates who didn't. Does it make a difference? So, the reason why... If you're on the field to play defense, stop the other team. If you're on the field to play offense, score. That's the rule that matters. Yes, but I'll tell you why it matters because so for those who missed it after the game Chris Jones and other chiefs Justin Reed but Chris Jones specifically the podium said yes we've been

practicing for the new overtime rules the new overtime rules by the way in the postseason and funny they got changed because of the chiefs and builds a couple years ago now it didn't matter because the guys kicked the field goal but in the overtime if you come down score a touchdown in the postseason the other team gets the ball and they a field goal. But in the overtime, if you come down and score a touchdown in the postseason, the other team gets the ball and they get a chance to answer. In the regular season, if you score a touchdown, the game is over. So basically there's no need for a clock, right, Gabe? The clock is kind of confusing because it's almost like college

where you get to answer no matter how long it takes. So there was no end of the quarter. I mean, no end of the half or the overtime wasn't over if the Chiefs did not convert there at the very end of that first overtime period. But, and then so Chris Jones said, Hey, we've been practicing this for two weeks now. We were going to go for two. We had it all mapped out. Patrick Mahomes on a different interview said, Hey, we were going for two. We had this all planned out. Justin Reed said, Hey, we've been practicing this. We're talking about since training camp. Taking the other side, Kyle Juszczyk, Eric Armstead, yeah, we had no idea there were new

rules for overtime. Now, Gabe, in the moment, does it matter? No, because it's your point. Got to play the game. Trying to stop them, trying to score. It would have been funny if another scorer thought they won the game. That would have been hilarious to see. But Eric Armstead said that he read the video board when the rules were out out and he figured out that the rules were different. What it goes to show you, though, is that the attention to detail is not the same between the Chiefs and the Niners. And where does that show in other parts of the game, Gabe, right? If the Chiefs are spending time on a very specific thing in practice

to prepare for this specific moment, they were ready for this moment, Gabe. The Niners, I'm not saying we're not ready for this moment, but the fact is the coach did not talk to him about it. He didn't cover the entire part of what could happen in the game. And where else do we see that in the Niners team? I can't tell you. I can't tell you. Maybe there's no other issues for attention to detail,

but it does kind of show you that we have this dynasty now. They do this. I promise you Gabe, Bill Belichick would have had this in training camp as well, right? It's just a little insight, I think, into not completely ready for everything in San Francisco, not completely buttoned up. Look, I play with Coughlin. Coughlin would have covered this in training camp. Andy Reid, obviously.

So just that little detail detail it might not matter but kyle shannon has been in super bowl now been up 10 points three times and lost the game you know like it's not his fault in atlanta he wasn't the head coach but maybe it shows itself in these moments yeah i mean another way of looking at it is boy that guy has a whole lot of stuff he has to worry about because he's got a second year quarterback and, you know, a bunch of added pieces on defense. Like there's a lot for him to think about that Andy Reed doesn't have to worry about because at the end of the day, he has Patrick Mahomes handling his offense. You know, he has Steve Spagnuolo handling his defense, so he can micromanage those little details. I mean, I'm not making excuses for Kyle Shanahan, but that is a difference, isn't it?

Yeah, it is a little bit of a difference. But, you know, in the end, though, it's like up to – he's the head coach. He's got to make sure that all the details are covered. Right, Gabe? That's his job. I mean, like, in the end, that's his – and he's the play caller, so is Andy Reid.

Now, look, Andy Reid has the benefit of having a special teams coordinator he's had since 2013 of handing Steve Spagnuolo. He has the benefit of – look, even Matt Nagy is a former head coach. You know, like, he has – I saw Louis Riddick tweet about the secondary coach, Dave Merritt. He's won two Super Bowls with the Giants. This is his – like, he's had aants. He has a lot of experienced head coaches. Former head coaches, longtime coaches. His tight end coach, by the way, has been there the entire

time since 2013, offensive line coach. Yeah, it certainly helps to have all the same coaches. But in the end, Kyle's got to prepare for that. All right. So let's talk about the Chiefs a little bit more specifically than in the sort of amazing run that they've been on. So by all the nerdy stats that guys like you love DVOA, etc. This was the hardest path to a Super Bowl victory ever, right? Like, you couldn't say you might say there was some luck involved. There's luck involved in a newest championship. The chiefs beat the best teams on paper and the teams, most of us picked to win every single time. And as Pat said, they're never underdogs, but they were all the way through. Like, how do you think that happened? And will that ever happen again? Are we ever going to make them underdogs in the post season again? What's funny is the odds came out for next year the

niners are ahead of the the the chiefs again well we got to talk about something for six months and we might as well give us that travis kelsey said he isn't retiring so that's off the board we got to talk about it and he reads not either um no i mean look the numbers go off power rankings the chiefs were not better than the ravens this season. And they were not better than the Niners for most of the season. And quite frankly, the bills at the end of the season, I get why their dogs gave him. And guess what?

The game went to overtime. It's like the Niners got blown out. No, you know, like it very easily could have won that game. I think if the chiefs roll back the same, so they're not going to roll back the same squad and the Niners are juggernaut again,

they will be underdogs. They'll just have to deal with it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, so you brought that up though. So the idea of a three-peat is clearly on their mind. It came up in, you know, each of their press conferences. It's what we'll spend the whole, you know, spring and summer talking about. Um, you know, you don't see that much. And in this era of football, it seems like there's a lot of parity. It'd be very, very hard to imagine them doing it again. And yet, why would anyone pick against them? What do you think would be the hurdle?

Besides just stuff goes wrong. If the Chiefs are healthy, what is the hurdle? What scares you? I mean, it becomes the roster churn, right? Like they've hit home runs game on all these young defensive players. Yep. And they're going to have to Gabe, on all these young defensive players. Yep. And they're going to have to decide to pay Snead or Chris Jones.

Probably not going to pay both. So let's say you lose Snead. Well, you have McDuffie, which is good. And you have – I think they're going to pay Snead and let Jones walk is my guess. Just a Jones third deal. Like, just go get as much money as you can for someone, right? Like, just go get $35 million. You've won three Super Bowls. You know, like, just go get as much money as you can for someone. Just go get $35 million. You've won three

Super Bowls. Just go get as much money as you can. Then offensively, are you going to figure out? You've got to pay Creed, most likely at center. Is Joe Tooney back next year coming off an injury? He has a big cap number. You've got to find yourself a wide receiver. You've got to find yourself

another tight end at some point. This becomes the issue with repeating. That's why it's hard to do look with eagles like the roster churn each year but they always have Patrick Mahomes like that's obviously the outlier you know not the outlier but like the the the cheat code um so I it that that I think is is why they're always going to be in it but they're legit roster they got they got I think is why they're always going to be in it. But they're a legit roster. I think Willie Gay is a free agent. They have to figure out these guys.

Remember Seattle for so many years hit on those defensive guys, right? And that's why they were so good. Eventually they didn't, right? Like the Chiefs have to keep hitting on these young players and developing them to keep replacing them. Left tackle, Dalvin Smith, is not going to be on the team next year. Most likely he's a one-year deal. They have a young left tackle. They drafted. Will he be ready to play next season? So there's always moving parts. But the chiefs, again, have shown sort of three different ways they've won

Superbowls now and that they know no matter what they can get there. Look, I think Travis Kelsey next year is going to be the same boat game where he just has like the regular season is just get to the postseason, right? Like just get this, like whatever you can do to throttle down his reps and just do what you can to get there. Like they have to start doing this with some of their players because the end goal is always to get the Super Bowl. Okay, so there's a couple paths we could go down here.

One is more guys they might add, and I think it gets easier, right? There are guys who are going to want to chase a ring, guys who are willing to take a quote-unquote discount, whether that's Chris Jones or not, whether that's Mike Evans or not, whether that's my big hot take is I think Jason Kelsey wants to be on this team, and I don't think he's retiring and going into media. I know he can make easy money, and I know he'd be great at it it and maybe he doesn't want to get beat up, but that guy was in the middle of every moment for the last few days. He seems to really love it. He seems to get along

with this team. I think he understands how great a story it would be to finish his career with his brother, maybe chasing one more ring. If they need veterans on that line, I don't know, could happen. You're not willing to say yes to that, but I think's a good idea i think we'll be talking about that by july um well i'll tell you what i if you rank like the best who had the best weekends okay so like patrick mahomes andy reed travis taylor swift i mean jason's like fifth right like the best i mean he he was he has lived in my dream he's at a marshmallow concert and just like up on the stage like living like just i mean i i have less alcohol than he does um but uh you would also be seated and he was dancing but yes he was dancing i mean i would imagine that's a lot of the adult beverages he was consuming. Yeah, probably. But no one had it better than him.

It's so funny, man. I mean, Tara Swift was shown like, I don't know what, seven times for 47 seconds. I mean, people get so bad out of shape about it, Gabe. It's so funny to me. Like they had a second where they showed other celebrities there. No one's like, oh my God, there's Paul Rudd. Take him off the screen um and again like she do you think she likes when they play her songs like

at the at the club after the game i feel like she's probably like come on guys like play something else what do you think uh no i kind of think she likes the attention uh i don't want to go down a whole taylor swift road here but i don't think she minds being shown. I don't think she minds her songs being played. I don't think she minds the room paying attention to her. That seems like what made her a superstar. Yeah. All right.

I was curious. I think it's an interesting relationship from afar because she seems really into him. She seems like the PDA person in the relationship and Travis does not. It's kind of funny to see them together when they have a little different vibes on the PDA. But nonetheless, Jason Kelsey.

What? You're dodging my prediction. He's not going to be the chief center. They have an all-pro center. I didn't say he'd be their center. Who's going to play a 275 pound guard i don't know that's why you're here make me smarter why can't that work i saw a guy a right tackle who couldn't line up correctly and jumped off sides all season long so move somebody over to that spot and put jason kelsey in the middle i'm working like that. You're just dismissing this whole idea.

I like it. Kelsey's not going to do that. Also, one last thing on the Kelsey's. I love that his wife is such a diehard sports fan that she won't wear any, any like chiefs gear. What? I respect it too. When I was a child, I was, I don't know, maybe like eight or 10 or not.

Eight, nine, 10. I went to a Dodger game for a birthday. respected too i i when i was a child i was i don't know maybe like eight or ten or not eight nine ten i went to a dodger game um for a birthday okay i'm not a dodgers fan and we're meeting tommy i wore a giant hat all right so there's a picture of me at this birthday party with tommy lasorda in a giant hat i mean like come on like fandom man gotta love, man. You've got to love it. No, that's – I bet Tom Lasorda respected that. Let me go back to one thing you sort of touched on, and I sort of – you said Travis will kind of just make sure he gets to the postseason. There's a bit of load management we should expect from him. And Noah Gray, by the way, at times this year,

looked like he could be 80% of Travis Kelsey. So if, you know, if Pat trusts him, then there's your answer. And I hinted at maybe Mike Evans or somebody of his caliber could end up there too. My sort of awakening to this postseason, especially the Super Bowl, was that Pat at all times, at any point in any game, can be the best running quarterback not named Lamar Jackson in the NFL at any point he could do it he has very consciously with Andy chosen not to do it and then you look at him in the postseason any do or die game and he rushes more times he rushes more times. He rushes for more yards. Like all of his statistics go up as a running quarterback. And you even mentioned some of them are designed runs

and plays that he can call his own number on. So is he just holding himself back to keep himself healthy and knows he doesn't need that pitch? Or should he be playing that way more often um so what we should the best part about this is like i don't have the patience to just like wait entire season to to run like to you know to like run a play, essentially, right? I mean, he waited the entire year to run these zone reads. Because again, Mahomes did not keep the ball the entire season.

Now, one was a zone read, one was a bootleg, one was the final play, which was an RPO-ish. It's an odd play. What I read about it, they were either going to have – well, Cole Hartman was going to continue on his motion and run a fly sweep or go back and – it was odd. Nonetheless, it was RPO, right?

So the three separate plays, but they're sort of the same thing, right? And on the fourth down play, obviously, they got about seven yards, eight yards, all they needed. They just wait until the very end to use them. I don't know why they would ever have to do it otherwise because the goal is to get to this part of the season with mahomes healthy and there's avoid avoid these hits and avoid him making contact and i think that's what they tried to do and they went to the very end to use it they to be fair like they might have just told him like we're running this play i'm i don't know if he was in this week.

They could just easily add that to the playbook at this point with the Chiefs. I'm curious if it was in. Because the one that he kept, the first one, there was really no receiving options sort of like waiting for the ball. Does that make sense? It was almost like he just kept it himself. The second one obviously was a bootleg. That was on the Naked ball. That makes sense. It was almost like he just kept it himself. The second one obviously was, was a bootleg.

That was on the naked. So that was happening. Yeah. And the third one obviously was a play call, but the first one, he might just kept it himself. Well, okay. But so let me ask,

ask it a different way. You know, the tush push, I'm no historian, but it sort of comes from great success in the most important games and then becomes their whole identity during the regular season. Right. Like that, that was a gutsy, innovative thing that helped them in a critical spot in the playoffs. And then they just started doing it all the time. So like, why not just have this in the bag all regular season?

Maybe you win an extra game or two and get the buy like i it just seems like pat mahomes is not even using an out pitch that he has available to him i i i just think you you the the chiefs look mahomes dislocated his knee in 2019 right and they have yet to run a quarterback sneak since then. They're just going to be conservative with him, Gabe. It's just sort of what they're going to do until they don't have to anymore. And so I don't think they're going to add this to the playbook. You know, they're going to just work for this game.

And if they play in the Super Bowl again next year, they'll run it again next year. Look, his legs, though, have been a big part of the Super Bowl again next year, they'll run again next year. Look, his legs, though, have been a big part of their Super Bowl wins the last two years, right? The long scramble, the long scramble in the Eagles game, the long scramble in this game, and even that third down run, the one he had in third down, third and one,

in overtime. I think he thought all the way he was keeping the ball because if you watch the play, he looks very quickly. The guys are open. Pacheco's open if he waits a split second. I think rice they might have doubled rice but kelsey eventually gets open and he just said screw it man i'm getting the first down myself and like that's what you're talking about right like he can do that much more often but he just doesn't right but i mean i said

to my son who's you know six uh on the fourth and one i was like pat's not throwing this ball he's keeping this and he's getting the first down watch. And I mean, I don't know anything about how the play call was written up. But I was just absolutely certain he was going to go get it himself somehow. Let me shift gears to Andy Reid and sort of this unbelievable legacy he's now created, but also use that as a comparison to Kyle Shanahan.ank put a good tweet in here from a guy named akash uh on a verathon yeah he covers the nutters yeah yeah interesting comparison so andy reed remember was for a long time like kind of a famous loser in big spots

you know he lost uh nfc championship games just going back to eagles days in oh one and oh two uh and oh three excuse me then he loses in the super bowl when he finally gets there so you know shanahan has had these pretty big and disappointing you know losing leads in huge games but he's young and he keeps getting there it took andy reid about 15 years to get back and then become what we now think of him as isn't it pretty early to start ruling kyle shanahan you know lesser than he can obviously win a handful of rings still before he's 70 that wouldn't be hard no look shanahan and andy reed are on the the parallel right i mean this is what andy reed was when philly right was get there couldn't win he He went to five

NFC Championship games and won Super Bowl. Didn't win any of them. And it took Patrick Mahomes to get there. I think the Shanahan thing, man, he's getting there with Brock Purdy and with Jimmy G, you know? So here's the thing about Purdy in this game. I thought Purdy was okay. He was good. But you can see, though,

there's a clear difference between what he can do and what Mahomes can do. That, I think, is the issue with purdy it's not that he's he's not good it's what cam new and i thought had a good super bowl week i loved his appearance with rich eisen um it just i thought he was able to explain his piece but he he said it correctly he's like he's not what a game elevator what he's a game elevator sort of game game changer just he just manages what he's supposed to do which is exactly what he does but he does not a game elevator, what do you say, game elevator, sort of game changer. He just manages what he's supposed to do, which is exactly what he does. But he does it in a high-level game. He's better than Jimmy G.

He makes some great throws. But there's still a little bit of limitation to what he can be as a quarterback. Part of that is the scheme. I think the scheme, there's a tiny bit of limitation where Spaggs was able to take advantage of it in this game. So, look, I think Purdy played fine. He played fine. Niners have the same thing

the chiefs do right you have some roster churn you have to sign some free agents and their team is is lacking some depth and part that is they trade away picks for trey lance and it's kind of where you're at when when that happens yeah well okay lynn explain this to me how come it seems so obvious now that oh obviously spags just threw a ton of pressure in his face and the probably you know two or three of the biggest plays of this game are somebody running it seems unblocked right into purdy's face and disrupting a pass or forcing what you know an incompletion on what should have been an open touchdown or big play so why wasn't this obvious to everyone who played against Brock Purdy all

season long? Like, why does it take Spagnola to just go, Oh, okay, let me disguise some coverage and throw some guys in. So, um,

I, I know that, uh, Hank gets sent at the chart, but I saw it earlier. I'm going to pull it up right now because it's, it's important to discuss. Um,

this is a, basically a Steve Spagnola, by the way, um, the three best, I'm going to, I'm going to give this a little Steve Spagnuolo love right now. The three best teams to never win a Super Bowl, 07 Patriots, 23 Niners, 19 Niners, according to Aaron Schett of DVOA. Those are all three times they play a Steve Spagnuolo defense, right?

07 Patriots, 23 Chiefs, 19 Chiefs. 23 Chiefs, 19 Chiefs. All right, so Bob Sternum put out a tweet at Sports Sternum with coverage tendencies for teams who play the Niners, okay? And the Chiefs had the highest percentage of cover zero, which means zero pressure, right? That means they blitz everyone but the guys guarding receivers. The second highest percentage of cover one, that's just basic man coverage.

Excuse me. Yeah. And there's different forms of man, but the Chiefs have the second highest percentage of man coverage all season. The other team was the Browns. Remember the Browns in the bad weather in week, whatever that was, six, I think it was,

beat the Niners playing the exact same style of defense Niners, playing the exact same style of defense. Less pressure, the exact same style of defense. When you have Trent McDuffie and LeJarrius Sneed, Gabe, two guys that can play man-to-man coverage, you can pressure and get in the face of those wide receivers and disrupt the timing. The thing about pressure and why man coverage is good behind it, Gabe, is if you're playing zone and you pressure and the quarterback sees it,

he can find that receiver like hooking up in that zone, right? If you vacate a part of the field, let's say I'm the quarterback, there's a pressure from the left. Well, I can throw behind the pressure before defender gets into that zone, right? In theory. So I can beat the free runner getting the ball out quickly. Well, in man coverage, if I have guys that can press and be physical early on, I can't get the ball out quick enough. That guy's not open. So the free runner gets to me sooner and there's no zone for the wide receiver to get into.

That's why it works. If you can do it, the Chiefs can. And they disrupted the timing. Look, the Niners have smaller wide receivers, and that's why Jennings, I think, had a good game. He was bigger. He was able to sort of get off, play more physical, which he's a very physical player in general. He blocks great. But Iyuk is 6 feet tall, 200 pounds.

Deebo's under 6 feet tall. They were able to hem them up and get in their faces. And so it was kind of fun to watch if you're a defensive guy. I mean, for a while, thevp was like jawan jennings or bosa or trent mcduffie i mean chris jones like it wasn't patrick mahomes until it was patrick mahomes yeah thank thank god it was patrick mahomes because i think we would have had to talk about kickers being mvp eligible a lot of kicking stats you know butker had a great game moody hit some bombs i missed the extra extra point, obviously, but, you know,

we were in danger of hearing kicker's name is in the mix for Super Bowl MVP. Luckily, we avoided that. At one point, Tony Romo said, going back to your previous point, that McDuffie ran the route, like, better than Debo did. You know? I'm like, I noticed that. He was fully aware of what the route was. He wasn't following him.

He beat him to the spot. Didn't end up in a pick, but easily could have. Where does that come from? Is that tape? How does a player know how to do that? Well, so the play that you pointed out was interesting. There's a close-up video of Trent McDuffie on D-Bone. It's interesting when you watch um defensive

back play i'm learning defensive back play um and you kind of see like their hand is almost their hands like on the guy's hips right and so when he moves you can feel where he's going and the niners have a lot of in breaking routes too so if you sort of have an idea you're on the guy's hip you pretty much know he's going. So if you sort of have an idea, you're on the guy's hip, you pretty much know he's going to go inside. That sort of helps, right? And he turned inside and McDuffie was there. On the long pass to Debo, Dominic Foxworthy brought this up.

You know, Trent kind of like hooked his arm a little bit, kind of grabbed his arm. But, you know, PI, I don't know, it's kind of the sort of playing defensive back. He was able to make a play. I mean, he just, these little veteran things, he's a second-year player that he does, but being able to stay close to that guy and feel his hip,

that sort of, you know, you go off the hip movement, right? And I think that's, McDuffie was able to run with Debo, which was very important in this game. If you obviously are behind him or a step back, it doesn't matter, right? He's going to be able to get open, but he able to run with them jam him be physical um so it was uh it was it was great man and this is why the chiefs may not pay sneed because they have mcduffie i'm kind of curious what they do yeah i i actually don't remember if it was mcduffie or sneed help me out here big penalty a pass interference call ju Jawan Jennings drew it,

and they really focused on – I think it was McDuffie. I think so too. It was McDuffie. But he is the reason he was able to draw that penalty because of everything you just said. He was sort of trying to keep track of him with his hips, and Jawan made a great cut, and he bit,

and he had no choice but to hold him and slow him down and the penalty was called and it was it wasn't the kind of pass interference call that you get like when the ball's up in the air and you touch him a little too early he just confused the hell out of him and drew the penalty the third and 13 right early in the overtime yeah yeah he just he he just he crossed him up and we duffy held him but that's rigged for the chiefs though right just want to just make sure i just saw a tweet by the way that's everyone says the games are rigged i just saw this i'm gonna take a look at this afterwards but uh i guess mahomes is doing a live hit from disneyland and uh they asked him um to comment cnn did he's

on cnn for some odd reason. To comment on the conspiracies that his Super Bowl victory was rigged to benefit Joe Biden. Oh, yeah. Yeah, what did he say about that? That's, I feel like, real life. Why is that question clear with the producer? What's the point of that question, Gabe? I don't know, but I want to hear the answer.

To benefit you and your conspiracy buddies? I love a good conspiracy theory. This one was one of my favorite because I don't know if you noticed, but whoever runs social media for the president had an incredible response to the end of the Super Bowl. So I'm just here for the good content, Jeff. I don't necessarily care which side you're on was a dark biden meme right yes dark brandon saying yeah as scripted um oh geez so let's uh let's spin it forward a little bit so you teased the

fact that for for whatever reason vegas thinks the niners are the favorite going into next year i have no idea why they would put themselves out there like that. Maybe there's some rationale at the casinos to try to get more money on them. But obviously the Chiefs should be the favorite. Who are the other teams that ended this season in disappointment but actually look like they're headed in the right direction, aside from the chiefs of course so i'll think about this i'm gonna probably write about this this week for fox sports

the houston texans stand out to me as a team and let me explain why um look at the history of sort of second year quarterbacks like stroud and where they get to right so we have patrick mahomes right second year anti-championship game russell wilson super bowl big ben super bowl jared goff uh second what's the second year with mcveigh yeah it was the second year the first year with mcveigh to make the super bowl was the third year with mcveigh um it was early in his career obviously i mean yeah like the the second year for a lot of these guys when you have a cap space and you have a good football team is sort of when you pop because the quarterback is really cheap right gabe i feel like for stroud into year two get more talent get more guys around them that feels like a team that can really take out look

it's easy to say bangles and bills but how many times we can say bangles and bills gabe you know the the we keep saying those things the bangles joe burrow can't stay healthy man like that that's a problem right now um and i can't put the bangles on there until i can see him stay healthy for entire season i can't put the bills on there until they beat the chiefs um yeah so i think the texas i don't look beating the chiefs is going to be hard to do of course um in the nfc who um i mean ninos and ninos will be back in the same spot probably next year the lions um cowboys is probably the same nfc team sort of in the same position as they were this year i'm hearing a lot of packers love a lot of people think the packers are yeah sure but they were playoff team this year i mean are they gonna are they gonna go on the road and beat

the niners in the playoffs lions i? I mean, sure, yeah. The Packers will probably be involved. But they don't have the same dynamic quarterbacks the AFC has. The AFC just has them right now. Caleb Williams will join the NFC. Drake May will probably join the NFC. We'll start getting some young arms in the NFC. But right now, the AFC has a lot of the dynamic quarterbacks.

Okay. Anything else before I throw some silly stuff at you? Anything we missed from the game that you want to cover? No, I think the silly stuff you're going to throw at me is the stuff that I haven't hit yet. So let's hear what the silly stuff is. Okay, so I already gave you my Jason Kelsey theory, so you're squashing that.

You don't think he's going to end up playing right guard for the Chiefs next season? No. Any big predictions for, you know, winners at the parade? Who's going to get loose and have the most fun, make it a fool of themselves, do something silly, throw a Lombardi trophy, drink avocado tequila? What do we think?

Oh, geez. I could see, like, maybe one of those, maybe a Drew Tranquil. He seems to get after it a little bit. I could see him maybe one of those, maybe a drew tranquil. He seems to get after it a little bit. I could see him being a guy. He's the guy that feels like that. I'm gonna go drew tranquil. I think your boy Creed is going to be in the mix because I think now he feels like,

you know, he's been there. He can let loose a little bit. I think the offensive lineman, you know, some of you guys are pretty wild dudes, but you know, you try to stay in the shadows.

Now he's got a couple rings. I feel like he can loosen up and have some fun. First things first, he's going to Kansas City again, by the way. Oh, yeah. And yesterday they did the Nick put down five banners. Oh, I was watching. It was so good. I don't typically watch a lot of TV during the day,

but my wife was home yesterday she had the day off and um i was sick as can be and i'm like i'm gonna watch the first thing's first at three o'clock and i watched the oh dude it's the best so um he was having a ton of fun the banners were so good the the tattoo i mean what you know what's on nick like predicted a back-to-back super bowl in conjunction with getting a tattoo that said never a doubt and what does pat mahomes tweet right after winning never a doubt that must have been like the best feeling in the world i mean like thinking about like he said so on his podcast today it was one of the best feelings he's ever had like i i get it i mean i i'm a fan of course of other teams

that aren't the chiefs i talked about this so i've been a pretty i've had a pretty good run as a as a sports fan um yeah i grew up a lakers fan i've seen six championships one is a bubble one i don't even count the giants have won three baseball titles then i grew up a niners fan i saw one as a niners you know night and steve young three chief super bowls um and i need organ to win now if organ were to win game my life my fandom would be complete so i'm sound a little spoiled if you ask me uh but sure um were you let down by the halftime show because i was uh my wife put the speakers on so loud in our house that they blew halfway through, um, my wife and our, so basically we had like upper thirties, uh, age, uh, ladies in our house that were having the best time of their lives during the, during the halftime

show. I don't really have a thought on it. It was fine. I was too loud in my house. i don't really have a thought on it it was fine i was too loud in my house i don't like loud noises i uh i thought alicia keys should probably just get her own halftime show and we don't need all this other distracting stuff um and you know usher didn't really get going until the final two minutes so the the best part of it might have been the videos i saw of people pretending to be alicia key's

husband watching the show um not a great feeling for that guy about that and then and then booger put out a tweet booger farland there was a big boink about alicia keys it's very it's like she she's thicker than like a a bowl of oats sitting out for five minutes it's like something like that it's very fun it's like it's like booger all right booger um it was funny man um i don't know uh i i what it is what it is it's fine okay any ads i don't think anything's gonna top the the la with dre and snoop so i don't know that's i mean just that was great but i mean i could see Springsteen one last time. I don't know when we'd get that chance. Of course.

Springsteen or – yeah, I'm curious what happens next year. It's big marketing. I mean, Usher went and put more tickets on sale, opened up more venues for his tour. So, my wife got some tickets. He's coming here in October, I think. Yeah. So, I didn't watch any commercials. You know who took out W in my mind? You didn't watch the commercials. They were coming here in October, I think. So, you know, I don't watch any commercials.

You didn't watch the commercials. They were good. There were some funny ones. My kids were laughing at a few of them. The big W for me, I feel like he could get a major spot next time. Post Malone. America the Beautiful. Well done, sir.

I mean, I knew he had a good voice, but he did great. Yeah, he's not using some of the stuff he used to, or not as much of it at least. Reba ripped through the anthem. She went over too. Everyone bet the under. I was on the over.

It's so funny. My daughter's seven and a half, okay? She spends more time on the internet than I thought she does because they show Taylor Swift. She's like, that's Taylor Swift. And oh, wait, she's with Ice Spice. I was like, that's a Spice girl? Like that girl looks like she's 20.

What are you doing? She's like, daddy, no, okay? That's not a Spice girl. And then they listed all five Spice girls. I was like, who's Ice Spice? She's like, oh, she's okay? It's not a Spice Girl. And then they listed all five Spice Girls. I was like, who's Ice Spice? She's like, oh, she's like a so-and-so on YouTube, and I see her on this. And then Reba is on the TV, and Emmy goes,

oh, that's the lady on The Voice. Like, she knows, like, or whatever. Reba's on some show as a judge. Huh? Something, some show my kids watch. That explains it, because I couldn't figure out why she was out there i think she's on it i think she must be on a show i guess i mean must that that explains that

she why she's relevant today i mean i know she's like a legend but i didn't know that people knew who she was today um i think i mean emmy em Emmy yeah she was on The Voice last year yeah there's the answer that's why yeah okay well I I thought it was a good Super Bowl the second half obviously way better than the first and now the story will

just be can they three-peat I wouldn't bet against them we've been saying that for a few years working together Jeff so thanks for making me smarter for another full football season. What's the plan in the offseason? We're going to give you a little bit of a break, right? It sounds like you could use a few days off.

You tell me, buddy. It's your world. I could talk every day if I need to. Let's see how many days of week we end up doing, but why don't you take a little bit of a cool off after doing 20 something straight weeks of picking games and uh making us some money i know we earned a few days of money i kind of got slaughtered though in my wagers but i hit mccall hardman touchdown that sort of made up the difference oh you're a known

mccall hardman lover so that makes sense uh yeah what happened again with mccall hardman and i he made a comment about i said he's done me number one why not he like clapped back at me is that what happened yeah that's right by the way I made this this joke uh in Nance in like right after Tony Romo stepped all over his Super Bowl you know call um he was Romo was so excited about the play call that he was like telestrating the game-winning super bowl play it was funny not not a thing you normally do but as soon as nance got the mic back and said in describing the super bowl winning play described miko hardman who started the year a jet wins the super bowl with the chiefs and i thought that's about as close as we jets fans are ever gonna get to hearing our name called by Jim Nance in the Super Bowl.

I didn't watch much of Nickelodeon broadcast. I don't know if you did or not. No, I didn't even put it on because I was afraid my kids would make me keep it on. I didn't tell them it existed. I saw the final play that they shared on the internet, and they need to actually slide in the field in real life to end the game. It was actually pretty fun to see McCole Harmon scores,

SpongeBob and whoever the guy is. I don't know. I don't watch that show. They're like crazy, going crazy. And then the slime just like shoots on the field in the graphics. It was pretty fun. It looked fun. I put it on for like two minutes to

show my people that were over that uh it was on uh but now we turn our attention to college basketball right game usc basketball don't you turn your attention to now yeah usc women's basketball with the best player in the country juju watkins uh you don't have anyone at oregon who can compete with her so yeah yeah, we will talk about the women's tournament. Not anymore. We used to. She's in the NBA now. She's taking on Steph Curry this weekend in a three-point contest. I'm looking forward to actually watching that. It might be the first time I watch NBA All-Star Weekend. I'm not going to lie. Steph Curry and Sabrina are having a three-point shooting contest. I know. and she's a great player, and I'll be watching as well,

but Juju Watkins is the most exciting scorer in any level, male, female, going right now. Watch her score baskets, and you will have your mind blown. She looks like peak Steph, where you're like, how can anyone guard this? Instead of Kaitlyn Clark? Is it better than Kaitlyn Clark? I mean, look, Kaitlyn Clark? She's better than Kaitlyn Clark? I mean, look, Kaitlyn Clark's incredible, but I think a little bit of that is the package. People are kind of surprised that this skinny girl can do what she does.

Juju looks the part and lives up to it. She has moves that men in the NBA do not have, like stutter steps, and she just keeps her defender off balance at all times. You know, you know, in his prime, Jason kid, like was never faster than anyone, but you could, you just couldn't get his rhythm right. And stay in front of him. He always had a way to have you off balance. She's that with a shooter's touch. It's unbelievable.

So it's like, uh, it's like Patrick Mahomes as a runner. He's just faster than he's faster than the next person trying to catch him. That's unbelievable. It's like Patrick Mahomes as a runner. He's just faster than the next person trying to catch him. That's it. It's football offseason, Jeff. Let's let you cool off, and then we'll get back here and talk draft and everything else. Yes, we will. All right, guys. Have a good

week. We'll talk to you guys when we figure it out. Take care, everybody. I'm out.