Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Rhule Out, New Concussion Protocols In, and the Giants are... Good?

Episode Date: October 11, 2022

Geoff and Gabe are back, kicking off today's show with a review of Matt Rhule's disastrous tenure with the Panthers. Next, Geoff explains how the overreactions to Tua's injury are shaping the conversation around the new concussion protocols, and Gabe is forced to admit the Giants and Cowboys are both better than he thought.Plus, on Moving the Line, Geoff defends Coach Staley and Coach Harbaugh, but Coach Kingsbury gets the axe. Also on this show: Gabe agrees with Tom Brady, and Geoff compliments Nathaniel Hackett. Only one of these are true, listen to find out which!As always, rate and follow the. pod if you haven't already, and be sure to leave. a comment or tweet @geoffschwartz to tell him what you think!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 october 11th i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe goodwin this jeff schwartz is smart on you powered by the varsity podcast network we have so much to get to today our first coach has been fired so cash those tickets matt rule panther fans he is gone we've got so much to talk about as we get to the bulk of the season in front of us five weeks almost down one more game left as we record this on Monday. Tom Brady comments. We have concussion protocol updates. The Giants are good.

There's a lot to talk about, Gabe. First and foremost, if you like this show, please give us a rating. We appreciate it. We read them. We look at them. Negative, positive. Hopefully they're positive. Hopefully you give great reviews. What's also positive, guys, Gabe might have had his best sports weekend as a football fan in a long time. Won't mention your baseball team.

Thank you. Football, USC win, Jets win, Chargers win. Oh, my God. Chargers win is the one we will get to because, wow, that was, boy, coach gave us a scare there. But, yeah, overall in the football world, pretty good for me. Less good for Matt Rule and Panthers fans. People in your neck of the woods there, Jeff, down in Charlotte. I want to get to that.

But also we're taking a bit of a risk here. We're recording this before the Chiefs play, but they're playing the Raiders, a team who is always talked about as a team who could beat the Chiefs, but never they're playing the Raiders, a team who's always talked about as a team who could beat the Chiefs, but never really seemed to do it. So do you want to go out on a limb and make a statement about the game before you've even watched it? Sure. I was going to actually make a statement saying I had a great football weekend too, because Oregon and Kansas City won. Yeah. We go ahead and do that right now. Oregon blew out Arizona. We debuted our pink uniforms for the UCLA game in two weeks. Game day is going to be there most likely in two weeks.

UCLA undefeated. Oh, my God. I mean, like right now, LA football, I mean, Rams, but like Chargers on the upswing, Bruins, Trojans both undefeated. So, yeah, Oregon, UCLA in two weeks. Can't wait for that. But, yeah, Chiefs will win tonight, cover tonight. We need them to cover tonight.

And they'll handle business as usual. But i feel like there's more pressing news right now yeah than how good the chiefs are at the moment yeah well while we record this of course hopefully you're right about what you just said about monday night while we record this the news is matt rule is out in carolina jeff i just got to put it out there if the people who've listened to this show for a few years may remember i was completely flustered and confused when out of nowhere, a couple off seasons ago, the talk of the town was this guy named Matt rule. And I asked you on the air,

I was like, I'm sorry, what's happening here? Why is this like the guy that everyone's supposed to believe is so good? He coached at temple and a couple of decent years at Baylor as they were rebuilding. Why is this guy a sure thing NFL coach? And all I kept hearing from all the media out there was how great he was

and how ready he was and how much of a culture guy he was. Well, what happened? He wasn't very good. He wasn't good. He wasn't good. I mean, there are some damning stats here, right? He was, what, 1-24? Like when the opponent scored 17 points or more he's one win in that time yeah it's not good god forbid they score 17 or more 11 and 27 with the panthers uh

not very good obviously um look his downfall was a couple things one is is, I think when, so a big reason college NFL are different is because in college you're in charge. Like, you are you are, you're in charge. Everything that you say goes, you're the GM, you're the general manager, you're the owner. You can treat players like shit. Now, they can transfer

now, sure, but you're more in control. In the NFL, you're not. Players are in control. Now, not always, right? But I mean, if you're comparing it to college football, you're more in control. In the NFL, you're not. Players are in control. Now, not always, right? But I mean, if you're comparing it to college football, the players are in control. We're adults. Got you.

It's like adults. I think his coaching style just never kind of cut through. Now, they didn't have good quarterbacks, sure, but his job is to find a quarterback with the front office, and they just haven't done that. Sam Darnold, Teddy Bridgewater, Baker Mayfield's been awful, Gabe. Like, atrocious. They kept Ben McAdoo.

Steve Wilks got elevated to interim coach. They fired the defensive coordinator as well. So that's, I think, the biggest issue. And he'll go back to college, man. He'll be at Nebraska. He'll be at Wisconsin. You know what's wild is if he did nothing for the next three years, he collects $40 million. But if he coaches, there's offsets and he won't get all that

money, but he'll obviously get paid by whoever hires him. But he will be a coach, again, most likely if he wants to next season on the college level. Do you think, tell me I'm reading into this too much. I'm not going to signal or single anyone out. But do you think that there is something going on behind the scenes when a guy goes from like, wow, he's kind of good and people like him. He has a good interview. Teams do pretty well. Maybe he should get a bigger job in college when you just skip that step altogether and go right to the big NFL meetings. Do you think that there's like coordination behind the scenes between agents and media and gms like it just seemed like he came out of nowhere and then everyone wanted him is that a coincidence

i i just i i surely think the media plays a role in this right we talk about chris ballard with the colts general manager he's a great example right yeah everyone likes him and he seems like the greatest guy. Great guy. Great guy. I don't know him. Great guy. But the Colts can't find a quarterback or a left tackle. At some point, you got to stop blaming Andrew Luck as your issue.

It's been five years now. Okay? Yes, the media influences this game. You're in the media. You know this. We talk about this all the time. Behind the scenes mostly. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, again, the reason I liked him was I called people.

That sounds so pretentious. I called, like, not even, like, cool people. It was like, hey, here's Matt Rule. They loved him. It's like, great. Good enough for me. I don't know any better. I don't know the guy.

I love him, too. Great hire by the Panthers. That's how it works, right? I get it. Don't know Matt Rule. Didn't really follow his journey through Temple. I saw what he did at Baylor. Dude, great hire by the Panthers. That's how it works, right? I get it. Don't know Matt Rule. Didn't really follow his journey through Temple. I saw what he did at Baylor.

Called some friends who knew the program, knew him. They liked the hire. I come on here and say, I like the hire. You were obviously a voice of dissent. And there are times when I've dissented of coaching hires, of course, even to the objection of people that I've talked to. This one, I didn't know much about him. He was a young coach. He obviously is not cut out for the NFL. He'll go back to college. I think he'll win at college. Yeah, I bet he will. And you know, he just sort of failed his way into a, what a

better college job than he would have had if he'd just stayed at Baylor this whole time, you know, he'll get an elite program and I bet he will perform. Um, he has to have learned something. So, uh, you know, on, on command, we're hearing Baker Mayfield will miss time. He has not played well, but now he looks hurt. This is going to be an ankle injury to keep him out for a little while. I want to bring that up because I also want to bring up the now it comes out that Russ has been hurt, you know, after a couple of bad games. Then we hear that he's been playing hurt. Do you think there's something to the like?

You're always hurt in the NFL, but when you need an excuse, there's an excuse ready in the media. A hundred percent. And the more I do this, the more I realize that's the way it works. And I don't know. It was Russell Wilson's or his, or his eyes hurt too,

because that, that last interception he threw had nothing to do with a bad lat muscle, but it was 30 yards overthrown, right? Yeah. Was his lat hurt when he missed Hamler wide open on the final play of the game? Give me a break. All that could have – those two plays right there had nothing to do with his injury. Now, I understand if your guy's hurt, fine, but it's just convenient, right,

when some of these superstars – was he on an injury report at all during the week? No. No. All of a sudden now he's so injured, he needs to have someone tweet it out. Again, I don't blame the media members. They're getting this information. They should tweet it out.

Good for them. That's their job. I don't blame, I think, Rapport who tweeted it out. Good for him. He got the information. Put it out there. But that's not why they lost the game. They lost because he had terrible overthrows

and he missed a wide open guy at the very end yeah yeah but excuses are made for superstars which is our segue to the next topic and listen you and hank conspired behind the scenes uh i'm busy right now i got the kids running around i was was celebrating my USC victory all late into the night on Saturday. It was dragging ass a little bit. That was fun, by the way. You texting us while you had a couple beers in the system on Sunday, Saturday before the USC, just like picking selfies by yourself in the Coliseum parking lot.

Just a 40-year-old guy sitting by himself, dead center in the middle of campus, drinking hard seltzer out of a garbage bag. Normal behavior. My friend did show up. My friend did show up. Well, he had the tickets. I hope he did.

He showed, and we watched the Trojans win. It wasn't a great game, but we'll come back to college ball. Listen, because I was a little checked out, you and Hank put together more of the rundown than usual. And for some reason, we're doing a Tom Brady topic here that does not touch upon the absolutely absurd bailout call that helped him seal a victory yesterday. The fact that his whole life is chaos. His team sucks. We're not talking about those things. You guys want to talk about him saying uh quote i've seen a lot of bad

football lately now this seems like a very obvious take but tom brady is pointing out what we can all see which is that offenses look sloppy so far in the season what else do you have on that well i think that the point is that most people don't acknowledge that publicly at least um and that tom brady skin was like, this is pretty bad football. I think he's talking about his team, too. Maybe. Are we sure? His team has not been that great. So I wrote about – I had to do a little early preview article

about a couple of gambling things for this week, and I wrote about Tampa Bay and they are at Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh might be the worst team in the NFL. They're getting eight points. I was like, yeah, we'll probably win Pittsburgh here because Tampa Bay lost the Pack packers lost the chiefs and if that roughing the passer doesn't get called atlanta has the ball back driving down to go win that game like they have not been great and i think a couple things are happening right now one

i think the lack of practice time does not help teams get better. There's no industry you would say that the lack of practice makes that person better in that industry, right? If I said to you that I cut down the time I podcast, I would probably be less of a podcast. Like if I had less radio and less interviews I did coming on here twice a week, I probably would be worse. But I practice talking. I talk enough. Everyone knows me.

But I practice talking, right? And I hopefully get better each show or each year. There's less practice time now. Guys are not practicing as much. There's not as much physicality in practice anymore. There's not as much hitting in practice anymore. We have a ton of injuries this year, Gabe. I do a thing each week for Fox Sports where I look for offensive lineman

matchups each week offense and his defensive lineman and I going through the I'm going through today and I'm like hurt hurt hurt hurt hurt defensive lineman hurt hurt like there's no even matchups to watch because everyone's hurt and part of that goes back in my opinion lack of practice lack of preseason reps and and just not being in the facility. Football's a sport. You got to practice. I get the individual trainers are great. I did all that too, but I also was on the field a bunch. I was fortunate enough to be in that part of my career. And again, I'm not advocating for two days again. Those stink. But there has to be a medium where we do kind of practice a little bit, get after it. And then i think also too is

you know with again like the continued movement of players for agency the draft it takes teams guy you know a lot of teams time to get into in the swing of things you each year now man and again this is not a new thing with for agency but you know with all there's more trades than than ever before now right so you have like the Packers and the Chiefs. It was brand new wide receiving cores that, you know, not all brand new, but mostly brand new. You know, Tampa Bay has all the injuries to deal with. There's just a lot of moving parts this season, I think.

The Rams, offensive line, just over the last couple years, injuries and depth issues, and they stink now all of a sudden, right? Like there's just a lot of this, I think, movement, lack of practice, lack of development with young players because you're not practicing, and you just get kind of a lot of parity. And again, the NFL is set up for this. We talk about this year over year. The NFL wants you to be 9-8 or 8-9.

That's how they're set up with frequency, with salary cap, and with the draft. And this year, Gabe, it feels like even the good teams, like the Vikings are 4-1. The Giants are 4-1. You know what I mean? Like there are teams that are winning that I think a lot of us are like, no, not good.

And the Giants are kind of the exception to this. But even the Vikings, they're 4-1, I think. Like, really? 4-1? and then it just and the giants are kind of the exception this but even the vikings they're four and one i think like really four and one like that i think is i think there's a lot of like averages here yeah the nfc west is is the perfect example of what i think you're getting at where we thought we might see a couple elite teams in the nfc west and then a couple other challenger type teams you know i guess none of us really expected the Seahawks to be any good at all. They seem okay. But the whole league kind of looks like the NFC West right now, where you're like, I thought those guys were going to be a little better than that, or like, that just isn't, that isn't special. I also think too, like, this is something that we're seeing with,

it's a good change in the NFL. I don't know how much it really ends up mattering, but there are bad teams, bad teams, not good teams, that are really fun on offense this season. Lions, Seahawks, Falcons, and their coaches have done a good job designing offenses that work for their

personnel. Now, Gino Smith is playing better than I think they ever expected. But look at the Lions, the running attack there, the Falcons' creativity and the way they run the ball, and you have this situation where these teams can stay in games because

of their offense, where I think in years past, the Falcons with Marcus Maruta four years ago would not even be close in these games, right? The Lions with Jared Goff, I mean, Jared Goff is not that good. Gino Smith has never been this good in his career i don't think and they're staying in the game because of their ability to just be fun on offense and generate points and move down the field so you're having this this this kind of evolving of offenses where they're tailing the offense is more to the players than ever before, but you can have a bad team with a fun offense.

And then you get like the Panthers and the Steelers, but you can still, I mean, even the jets, man, they're, they're three and two. Like is Zach Wilson that,

that good? No, they came back from 30 to 17 with Joe Flacco in a game. Like they came back there in 2010, two weeks ago. Like they're just kind of like sticking around because, because they're doing enough on offense. They have a few guys on defense, a schedule and whatnot.

So I think that's all sort of part of, I think, why we're at this point now where there's not a lot of great teams. There's a couple. There's not really a lot of bad teams. There's a lot in the middle. Okay, well, I'm not going to get into teams like the Falcons keeping it close and then losing and horrible play calls that went against them to save the savior once again, because he has a history two decades now of that being the case. I'm not going to get into that. Other shows will

cover that. I do want to ask you though, more broadly, the league tends to notice trends, right? The league will tend to adjust rules and gameplay in order to make a better product. Now, they aren't trying to figure out who's winning and losing. I'm not accusing the NFL of being the NBA in the 90s, but they will notice something like, boy, there aren't a lot of points being scored. We got to get something going here. So do you think that they will make some adjustments to the level at which they enforce certain rules? And we will get into the new, what I'll call tour rules soon.

I'm just talking about like ticky-tack stuff that affects the overall score of games. Yes, they always do that. They always look at the penalties and adjust them throughout the season. There was a lot of holdings this week. There were some games I'm like, what are we doing?

You know, but I'll tell you what though, positive for you though, the refs are definitely helping usc out so that's that that's certainly good um so you know in some in one sport at least the refs are helping some team out but getting back to the nfl there were a couple went in the stadium where everyone was livid and then went oh wait we're okay it's fine yeah somebody threw a flag i guess i don't know why but every single play in that game um no i they will adjust but they're not gonna stop protecting quarterbacks that ain't gonna happen

especially after what happened with tua well let's talk about that then so you know i can be salty about the brady situation uh and claim that it's all about him getting special treatment and a good portion of me believes that but the more rational part of me will recognize that this is a reaction to what we saw uh with tua and the way he got slammed to the ground and the refs are very obviously sensitive to that in addition they've created this new rule which is it's not whether or not you pass a concussion test it's more of an eye test, right? So if folks involved can say the guy looks woozy, the guy does not look like he should go back out on the field, common sense supersedes a concussion test now, which overwhelmingly seems like a good idea, except

when you enforce it and keep guys who maybe could have gone back out there off the field, and now you're watching third stringers, which the case with the dolphins game so what are your reactions one week into seeing how this has been rolled out um with the dolphins as our sort of case study they're being very sensitive teddy was kept off the field after he looked a little bit banged up but yeah maybe could have gone back out what do you think of this yeah so the bridgewater one was interesting i i only saw a little bit of that happen in person i was going i was flying yesterday so i was watching uh men say what the airplane wifi is so much better now i just had red zone channel on my ipad the entire game i was the entire day i was traveling promote the end of the early games through kind of the

middle of the um afternoon games um and at the time I did not think it was a head injury. I didn't. And then I watched it again. And yeah, I could see where he got up a little bit slow, kind of did the two-a-thing a little bit, moved his head around a little bit. I'm fine with an overreaction to make sure players are safe. Now, the question becomes, what happens if it's Pat Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady. It's easy to do this.

No offense to Teddy Bridgewater. It's easy to do this at a 1 p.m. game in New York when you're not on primetime television. But if tonight Pat Mahomes hits his head on the turf and gets up a little bit slow, he might not be concussed. He might. I didn't even think Bridgewater hit his head that hard on the turf either game. But Tim Mahomes doesn't even hit his head on the turf.

Just kind of gets hit, falls down, gets up slow. He's wobbling. He's out. I'm curious if they do that then. But I'm all for being a little more protective, man. I'm okay with that. I'm okay. And it will correct itself.

We're going to see an overreaction for a couple of weeks. It'll correct itself back. But the 2-1 to me was so obvious. That's why everyone's upset about it, because it seems so clear. He was wobbling. Teddy Bridgewater to me wasn't as clear. He passed the protocol. However, now, this is a big difference. I mentioned

at the time. Teddy can play this week. He'll pass. It's a five-day test, five-day protocol he'll play on sunday the thing that would too is that if he was in that concussion protocol he would never play it on thursday so teddy will still play so they might have lost the game because they had to put in their third stringer but they'll have their quarterback this weekend if in fact he didn't get concussed yeah and i if we're talking about slippery slopes, I'd rather we overreact in favor of making all the guys who shouldn't be out there safer than a few of the guys who could be out there not be allowed out. I feel better about one of those being a little bit off. Let's be off on the side of safety. I'm with you on that. Agreed. Yes.

Yes. Yeah. You mentioned, though, like how it could be different for a superstar. Let's fast forward. Let's not just say a superstar on a Monday night, you know, overly, uh, rule oriented, uh, and weren't necessarily protecting players against the kinds of things they were describing. They just basically threw them out when the playoffs came around. It was what everybody wanted. Is it possible with something like this?

We see the same idea. Um, yes, I, but then also we've also had like, you know, 15 more weeks to the playoff start, it feels like. But yeah, I think, I think they're going to not like it if the star quarterbacks are not allowed to play and don't have concussions. But I will say though, on national television again, the quarterback gets hit and stumbles around. It's a bad look if he keeps playing, whether it's Mahomes or anyone else.

So I think they're going to be caught kind of in the middle there. I do think they're going to want these guys to play, but also there's a public perception of making sure that they are able to you know to be healthy and not you know come up wobbling after hitting their head um you know on the ground all right well then just to prolong this one more beat here it strikes me that no one could have seen this coming or well actually plenty of people could have seen this coming but nobody built their team with this rule in mind this year but it seems to me that depth, particularly at the quarterback position, is going to be vitally important this season. And that, by the way, Teddy Bridgewater is arguably the best backup quarterback in the league.

And a few other teams have very capable backup quarterbacks. The 49ers are a very good example, with Jimmy G being the starter now. good example with jimmy g being the starter now do you think that are you starting to think let me bet the teams with good backup situations capable third stringers or are we now just playing for what's like future wagers or just like each week well i i mean literally but are you betting it but more just in general do you think that it helps to have a team with a lot more depth or yes it's why the niners fought to get Jimmy Garoppolo, even though I thought it was silly, right, to do that. Yeah, yes, if you're –

But I don't mean for – that's for season-ending type stuff with Trey Lance. I mean, you might need a guy to finish a game for you. Yeah, I think it's the same thing. You need that guy. Gabe, there's just not a lot of them. There's not a lot of quarterbacks to put in the middle of a game that can go win. It's different if they get a whole week to prepare.

There's like four guys. You'd be like, put them in a game. And Chad Henney, I think for the Chiefs, I feel okay about. I think he's their backup quarterback. Teddy Bridgewater, I think, is one of those guys we feel okay that he's in the game. Joe Flacco. Joe Flacco, I guess he's proven you feel better about that.

Bailey Zappi. I feel pretty good about Bailey Zappi in there. It's just not a lot. There's not a lot of backup quarterbacks you feel that great about. You're leaving one guy out because he's not a backup quarterback. He's a tight end. We're not talking about it. I did win my fantasy league game this weekend.

Even though Taysom Hill, I went against him and he had like 45 points. You beat a team with Taysom Hill? Yeah. Was Taysom Hill playing in the tight end position? Yeah. And you still beat him? Yeah. That's suspect.

No, I mean, right here. That's why you guys come here to listen to my fantasy team. He had 162 points and my opponent had 145. With Taysom Hill on their team. Yeah, Taysom Hill. Did they forget to start every other player? No, no, no. So I did better at quarterback, one wide receiver, both running backs,

kicker, defense, and then Mark Andrews got 22 points from me last night. Yeah, he played a good game. I had Tucker. So, the thing about fantasy, the fantasy is I always auto-draft because I just can't, I just, all my league is, it's all with colleagues at Fox and they all want to, you know, do the draft at 7.30 Pacific and I'm just like going to sleep. So, I always get Justin Tucker because you auto-draft and you get the kicker like in the ninth round.

He gets me points every week. I love it. Yeah, well, we're not talking about kickers. If you're not willing to talk about Taysom Hill, I'm not willing to talk about kickers. Let's move to the Giants. You're a former team. So listen, I will admit I'm starting to think I was wrong about the Giants. I thought they were like a fluky team that happened to win the two games they were supposed to lose in the first couple weeks.

And then we started to show themselves. And then eventually they'd be like a five win team. Well, you know, maybe I was wrong. They look pretty darn good. Uh, Brian Dayball, early favorite for coach of the year. Um, so they beat Rogers in London. The stadium was supporting them. They might not suck. And in fact, that division, which has been one of the worst in football for years now, might be the strongest, at least looks like it on paper. So, Jeff, tell me, are the Giants, are they a team we're talking about every week? And then we'll get to the Cowboys and Eagles and all the other teams. I think right now we're talking about how impressive their coaching job is so far. how impressive their coaching job is so far.

Man, they design an offense very well around the issues they have on their team. They don't have an elite wide receiver right now. Daniel Jones is by no means elite. Their interior offensive line is okay. Evan Neal is learning at left tackle. And they just continue to battle each game, man. The amount of i call i think i called it yesterday on twitter the the giants move the pocket or scramble offense right

like they're moving daniel jones every play outside the pocket boots play action passes scrambling and letting his legs do a lot of the work and then defensively they're just solid they're solid unit it's a pass rusher some cornerbacks, but you can definitely tell that they're well coached because they do not make a lot of mistakes. They are not a mental mistake team. They are not blowing coverages on defense. They're not letting free guys run on offense.

Again, they're using the parts that they have to the best of their ability. Are they a playoff team? I don't know. They've still got to play five division games, but they're better than I thought they would. And that credit to me goes to Brian Dable. And remember too, lastly, their general manager came out before the season said,

guys, please don't judge our record. We did not bring in these players. Essentially is what he said. Like they didn't expect to be this, this good. They're playing good football. They're going to win seven games, like probably eight games, like they didn't expect to be this this good they're playing good football again they're gonna win seven games like probably eight games but they deserve the credit they're getting right now are they gonna get screwed though into this was the year where they needed to decide if this

was their quarterback or not are they i'm gonna be unfair to jimmy g here are they gonna have a good enough year despite the quarterback that they don't make the quarterback move they should to become a better great question it's certainly possible right now it might not be I don't think they're going to think Daniel Jones is the guy but they might be out of a draft position to get the guy right they might have to try now if Pittsburgh gets the first pick overall someone's going to trade up because pittsburgh's not drafting a quarterback no but yeah they're out they'll be out of the kind of elite range of getting those guys now they can obviously move up and do that seahawks are kind of in the same boat like gino's not the

future they're like keep winning they lost this weekend but they keep winning games so uh yeah they certainly could be out of of the running for a quarterback if they win too many games. Yeah, well, there's... And I think even make the playoffs game, they're not staying with Daniel Jones. He's not their future. No.

I think we're going to have a lot of time to talk about this in a few months, but it's hard for me to tell who a real quarterback from college is these days because these offenses are all smoke and mirrors. So, you know, i don't know what you're getting when you get a player from a you know power five school anymore it's very hard um you know for for so many years you kind of had a certain type of quarterback and now it's just about like traits more anything else like you don't need to like sometimes be good in college like are you like do you have the traits to see the nfl are you coach properly do you have the right system in place it's pretty

impressive yeah to see some of these guys that had no chance to see it i think and doing well in the nfl okay perfect segue to the other team in that division who's probably the better team let's admit let's admit it i was cautioning you all pre-season early weeks of the season let's admit it. I was cautioning you all preseason, early weeks of the season. Let's not get into the Cowboys. Let's try not to fall for it. But Cooper Rush has changed something for him. It's undeniable. We don't know when Dak's coming back, but it should be soon.

Except now, is he coming back? Like, what do you do? I'm going to stop you right there. There's no question about this. He's coming back. And he'll be starting quarterback right away. But why is that so obvious? I'll tell you why.

Cooper Rush had 100 yards thrown yesterday. He has not led an efficient offense in the four games he's played. The Cowboys have won because they have been excellent on defense. And Cooper Rush avoids making mistakes. But if they have to play a game where they like they're playing the Eagles this weekend, if the Eagles score 24 points, Cooper Rush is not winning in that game. Dak Prescott can win them that game. That's the huge difference.

Now Dak's starting just better in general, but that's a huge difference here, Gabe, is if you play one way, which again, the one way is defense, special teams, run the ball, keep Cooper Rush out of bad situations. You win that way. But if one of those things aren't working, rush team's not working this week, defense is not working, your run game's not working, He's not good enough to make up the difference where Dak Prescott is. I remember a situation not long ago, important part of my life, where every word you just spoke was also spoken about a younger quarterback, but the guy named Tom Brady with a much better quarterback in front of him named Drew Bledsoe, who'd been hurt.

And they thought whether or not he should come back and take over his team again. And you know what? They stuck with Tom Brady. And here we are. Are you saying Cooper Rush doesn't have Tom Brady capability? No, not,

he's not, not the greatest quarterback of all time. Just sitting and waiting. Huh? Uh, maybe a few good calls in his favor and he could be. All right, what about the Eagles then? So they got bailed out by just Cardinal stupidity, I guess.

You can walk me through it. The Eagles, it's hard to say for sure they're the best team in the NFL, but they're definitely better than we thought they were. The Eagles have issues in the second half of games that they just aren't as good. But yeah, Arizona really screwed that up. So a couple of things. The NFL changed the rule years ago that when you slide as a quarterback,

you're down where you initiate your slide. It used to be when you slid, you were down where you stopped or when you first hit the ground. And quarterbacks each week game routinely do not understand this rule change. They slide short of the first down and get marked short each and every time. So Kyler Murray slides a yard short. I saw it when it happened. Now, people claim that the jumbotron in the stadium went to first and 10.

Okay. Six never did. It was always third down. They spiked the ball. They bring in the kicker and they miss. But it goes to show you again, just Arizona is not well coached. Like this has not happened to a Chiefs team, to a Packers team, to a Steelers team, to Cowboys,

whoever else. It doesn't happen to teams that have won a lot of football games, Tampa Bay. This happens with coaches that don't get the best out of their teams and look lost on the sidelines. Colin Murray has to be able to know the rule, and if he's going to slide short, short fine but have a play ready to go pay attention to the guard marker and then get up run a play and go plus they they had some bad

clock management early in that drive as well it it just not it's not good man just not good well brain farts happen to the best of us jeff because i think you just threw the cowboys into the category of teams that that i know that was i know. I realize I did that. Yeah. We're 4-1. We'll give you a take back. But they're not making mistakes right now, though. No, they're not. They're playing good football. But to your larger point, which is a fair one, well-coached teams with a record of winning don't make those kinds of mental mistakes. And so I guess I have to ask you this, and this will be a good tease for moving the line next where we'll hit on some college ball. Now watching Lincoln Riley's offense a lot closer than I ever have before and seeing

the kind of plays Caleb Williams does and does not make. I'm looking back at Kyler, Jalen, Baker, and I'm starting to think like yeah i don't know that they're really actually learning how to play football in the nfl by running these unbelievable offenses because again this is where i'm not smart enough help me get a little smarter it seems like the number of options they have and the sort of decision tree that they have to go through is very simplified and in the in college yes and then and their athleticism is the fail-safe when you have a more complex decision tree and athleticism isn't good enough to get you out of every situation it doesn't really work is what i'm seeing and i'm curious what your thought is on that. Yes and no.

Obviously, if you're in a more complex college offense, you have the capability, I think, to come in the NFL more prepared. But most offenses in college aren't very complicated. You read half the field, man. Play action pass, let it go. So I don't think that that's a reason why those guys may be not as as good as we thought i just think that offense in in usc against usc now is just really good and it gives the quarterback easy reads and i think that and this happens with

ohio state quarterbacks too like it's just so easy for them in college. When you get to the NFL, it's just, I was watching Ohio State this morning, actually, look at their offensive line. And the amount of times guys are just wide open for C.J. Stroud, like down the middle of the field, it's not going to happen in the NFL. Not going to happen in the NFL. And that, I think, is more than anything else

the reason why those guys might struggle in the NFL, and that I think is more than anything else the reason why those guys might struggle in the NFL. It's not because it's too simple in college football. Okay, well, that's fair. I guess I'm just noticing, I don't have a lot of anecdotes for this, but it just seems like there's quarterbacks like the few that I just named. You see a lot of replays where some guy was standing completely wide open and he never even looked at him. It's not that he threw the ball poorly. Can I give you another reason why, too, I think?

Yeah. So most of the quarterbacks in the NFL, long-term success, succeed with their throwing arm, right? They're mobile. They can move. But in the end, it's the throwing arm. Those guys that Lincoln Riley has had don't have the best arms. Like Jalen Hurts doesn't.

Baker Mayfield doesn't. Kyle Murray doesn't. I'm not sure Caleb Williams has the best arm. He's accurate. He struggled the last couple weeks compared to what he was at the start of the season. But, you know, when you watch him play, I don't think great arm, accurate, on time. Those are all those things.

I think that's part of it, too, is like, and Bryce Young has this problem, too. Bryce Young is not a big guy. Like, I don't, to me, Bryce Young is not, and again, I'm not saying that only success in the NFL is big arm quarterbacks. But if we're trying to find the correlation between this topic of like, okay, maybe they're not as good in the NFL, that's part of it, is they're just not like massive arm talent throwers. They're accurate.

They're on time. And if you get to the NFL, it's just a little bit tougher game. And having that big arm is very helpful. Yeah, fair enough. Well, then let's talk about one of these guys who, you know, every facet of his game gets criticized all the time. But his coach was never the problem. And now starting to wonder if maybe Harbaugh is the one holding back Lamar Jackson. We'll get to that next when we move the line. All right, Jeff, we're back. I don't like asking this question, but I'm going to do it anyway.

10% chance John Harbaugh is maybe slipping a little bit, and he'll be the one who costs them their shot at a ring this season. What part are you slipping? I don't know. Just suddenly can't quite make up his mind whether he's a math guy or a gut guy. I don't know. This like suddenly like can't quite make up his mind, whether he's a math guy or a gut guy. I don't know. This is where you come in. I just feel like the Ravens are making some strange decisions

or opening themselves up to being second guessed a lot. And the last few weeks have taken miracles to get them the wins that they have or could have had. So Harbaugh's getting crushed now because he kicked the field goal, right? This week where he didn't last week. Every week it's the opposite of the week before. I'm just asking if maybe he isn't as sharp as he once was. I don't know.

No, I think you should succumb to pressure, right? Like last weekend he got crushed for that, and this weekend he's going to do it. Even though I think the numbers show that kicking a field goal to go up six is kind of pointless. And I don't know maybe and so i think that's i think he's just overreacting each week and we're seeing like you know there's been a lot of odd coaching decisions and again i i hate like i believe in the math i'm not saying i don't i believe in it but like i don't know man we thought it. But like, I don't know, man. We thought it was last week.

It does seem like a lot of coaches are defending decisions now more than they ever have. And less and less, it feels like this. Less and less people are being praised for these decisions happening. And maybe it's just because they're not working as much this year. But Brandon Staley yesterday, I mean, I get it. But, you know, Brandon Staley yesterday, I mean, I get it. The numbers say that you had a 7% higher win percentage if you converted that fourth and won. But, oh boy, you lost that game because you didn't kick the ball.

But the Browns would have had the ball under a minute, no timeouts with Jacoby Brissett inside the 10-yard line needing a field goal i kind of like my chances on the chargers in that situation yeah yeah so that was the next question i was going to bring up and i'm going to change it on the fly here 50 chance players on the chargers are like looking a little side-eyed coach today today. Because we saw Keenan Allen, who wasn't playing, tweeted, what the F are we doing? So that, yeah, you just summed it up.

I mean, they go for it on fourth down in the middle of the field. And basically, the only reason the Browns have a chance is because they do that and don't convert. Now, Brandon Staley, since he got into the league, has been the go-for-it guy. And as a lifelong Chargers fan, I can tell you that's been refreshing but man that was a real head scratcher me amy amy trask former writers executive we might have had on the podcast before tweet out like that he would have been she would have fired him if he was the head coach and they lost that game because of that decision

um i mean it was fireable because it really made no sense to the naked eye now maybe if you're looking at some excel sheet you think you have slightly better odds but still man that's like the guy at the blackjack table who's doing everything by the book instead of feeling like the energy in the room and having a little fun like you gotta you gotta punt that thing right especially like there's a whole sequence there i mean nobody talking about it nationally was watching every part of that drive but like they'd had chances they'd call timeouts like they they had a moment to think about this yeah um again the the win percentage chart said they should go for it so we went for it didn't work out i get it but again i i just the chances you get that play if you don't obviously you should lose the game they should

have lost the game missed field goal obviously they should have lost and the browns also got caught the ball back and then like ran the ball twice like what are we what are we doing cleveland yeah unless that fancy algorithm accounts for it being Cleveland and them being in common. I just think that if you punt the ball back and the Browns drive 70 yards for a game-time field goal, you can live with that a lot easier than, or I guess it would have been a game-winning field goal.

They were down two. Yeah, no, then you lost. Then having them drive seven yards can be a field goal to win. So back to my original question then. you lost then you know then having them drive seven yards can you feel all the way so so back to my original question then on the one hand you could say players who are always telling coach go for it would be like yeah man our coach has big marbles like we love coach man he has faith in us that's awesome but just as easily i could see it being like coach what are you drunk what are you doing man you almost lost us that game so which is it so this is this is the hard part because this is why

the people that that argue you know they're in favor of just strongly building a game plan analytics is they always say that you know the the results of the process are not the reason why the process is good or bad. Because you're taking it off the mat. If you have a 60% chance to win the game versus a 49% chance to win the game, if you take the 60% chance

and you lose, okay, well, we did the right thing. So we only hear about this when it doesn't happen and doesn't work out in the way that they it says it would work out it was essentially on the spreadsheet to talk about in simplest terms that's why we hear about it when it fails but if it would have worked you've been like great he was aggressive he won them the game i think players very much feel the results more anything

else right like right and you lose a lot but again the chargers won though so like this is not a situation where the locker room is going to really care very much all right but so keenan allen has not been healthy so he's not been able to be on the field with his team would coach want to talk to him he put that out there publicly i'm sure he talks to him at some point yeah when do you think what what is that conversation like if you had to guess like he explains why they did it so coach says hey keen and i saw what you tweeted i know you're pissed off at the time i get it but here's why i did what i did and keen hears him out and goes all right cool coach good call i think that's what they would do it yes all right i hope that's the case as an obvious passionate chargers fan for a long time

uh let's move along here's a guy who's been in my mind is going to get a pass for far longer than most people would because he's such a likable dude and hard knocks and the whole thing over under two and a half seasons of pathetic losing before dan campbell gets fired because people just love him for so many so many We're at two right now, right? This would be year number two, yeah. Does he get it to midway next year? I think he does because they'll draft a quarterback, and that'll be the reason why he gets to keep his job.

Like the quarterback, like, guys, we're working on the quarterback. I think yes. Because, okay, so I don't care. I didn't fall for all this Dan Campbell love like the whole rest of Twitter did. They suck. Get it. They score a lot of points. But like they completely suck and they scored no points

against a guy I've never heard of on Sunday. A bad team with a quarterback I've never heard of. Right, right. You have some of those weeks. But again, when they draft – They only lose. I keep hearing how great they are. When they draft a quarterback, that will buy him time, in my opinion.

Okay, so you're answering my question very literally. I guess I just want to have a conversation about Dan Campbell. Yeah, they're not doing well. They're not playing well. They suck. Yeah, but they have the pieces in place where i think if they were if they had a quarterback you might feel much differently about them now defensively they have to make a change i mean it's not good so maybe that's where they make the first change but they have like good bones man

they have like some pieces there to be good i've heard that for over a year now they suck they're the same team they've always been. Since Dan Campbell won't get fired for a year and a half is what you're telling me. Matt Rule already has been. Odds out now on the next head coach fired. Your boy Cliff Kingsbury is leading the charts. I think you would agree with that. Nathaniel Hackett coming in number two.

Ron Rivera, hate to see him on that list. Third most likely. Who do you think is going down first among those guys? I actually thought Josh McDaniels would be on the list if they had lost last weekend. I don't think it's Kingsbury yet. Really? Would they fire Ron Rivera in the middle of the season? I don't think it's Kingsbury yet. Really? It's like, what would they fire on Rivera in the middle of season? No,

I don't think Rivera is going anywhere. I might be, we just covered. It might be Kingsbury after the season. Yeah. I think Kingsbury is next out. And I think whether it's right or wrong, I would assume he'd be snatched up by somebody else instantly, but I think Kevin Stefanski could be gone.

Really? I think that Cleveland, I think Cleveland's just going to slowly just turn over everything they've got going on there. Um, I don't know why it's good feeling. Interesting. I mean,

we'll see what happens when Watson comes back. Yeah, exactly. Uh, over under 15% chance. Antonio Brown's tweets are making Tom Brady stronger. The distractions and doubters help Brady. God, what do you think? Brown is being a big fucking clown right now, isn't he? With this stuff. Antonio Brown's tweets are making Tom Brady stronger. The distractions and doubters help Brady. God.

What do you think? Brown is being a big fucking clown right now, isn't he, with this stuff? Total clown. Like, dude. And, you know, I've made a point of not talking about Tom's divorce. I mean, we hinted at this was behind the scenes happening, we thought. But we didn't, like, we're not joking about it. This guy's getting divorced.

And I know you despise Tom Brady. Yeah, can't stand him as a player. we thought but we didn't like we're not joking about it this guy getting divorced like we i know you despise tom brady i can't stand him as a player not rooting for him in really any walk of life but i also wouldn't root for a guy to get divorced and i don't want anything bad to happen to his kids and his family yeah like just antonio brown's being a fucking jackass like he's being a terrible human right now for those who have not seen it he keeps like putting out memes with himself and giselle like this another one he put out was tom leaving it was like a cartoon of a cut front kind of cover of like a book old school book at tom brady leaving the house for work essentially and

antonio brown put himself in the house with his family like come on man come on it's off limits off on the uh chris long uses the term a code violation. It's a code break. It's a code break, man. Come on. He needs to go away, dude. Just go away. Yeah.

Well, I think he's probably given up on the idea of anyone signing him again. And so he's, and I definitely don't want to talk about this, but he's going off the playbook of his buddy, Kanye. And they're just like, I'll just keep saying Kanye torch just yet. Gabe, I've been waiting for this. Is he, I haven't read his tweets yet, but have we got DEF CON three yet?

It's unclear where we are. The old Hebrews. And yeah, what, what are, I don't know how alert we need to be for what Kanye is telling us about, but yeah, he and AB are just firing them off.

I just had a conversation about judaism and with a buddy of mine and like about sort of the topic that kanye is broaching just like the idea that there are people that like that think that you know the jews aren't the whatever not important and then coming up with the tweet out like an hour later i was like see so i'm talking about this i'm talking about. Who knows? Kanye's... You know, because you can just scream cancel culture now, cancel me. You don't have to

ever accept responsibility for your own failures. Maybe the clothing line stunk. I don't know. Don't pay attention to his clothing line. Maybe no one liked your clothes, buddy. Maybe it's not the evil Jews who are the reason why your clothing line didn't sell. Yeah. This is about his clothing line, sell yeah this is about the clothing line right this is about his clothing line i think who the hell knows but if you're trying to sell something one way to help yourself is to not like cross a percentage of the population off the list of people who might ever buy your stuff

talk to michael jordan about that he was pretty smart when it came to not pissing everyone off about his brand uh last one here we go jeff i think this is really just a trick by Hank to be able to come up with a new punt God over under 80% chance. Iowa's best offensive play is a punt. Let me read you this tweet from I'm going to butcher this man's name. Shahan Jahan. Geez, I don't know how to say that guy's name. I'm shahan uh so if i understand right iowa just punted from their own 16 recovered him off at the illinois 35 went three plays for minus six yards and punted forced to fumble and recovered at the five went four plays for minus four kick the field goal a 15 play minus 10 yards 76 punt field goal drive yes Yes. A buddy of mine I do radio with, was a producer.

We talked Sunday morning about the Iowa. They got the ball to five-yard line and went backwards for three plays. They're bad, man. They're so bad. But I do think they beat USC, which is the most important thing.

Listen, I want to end on college football with this. I'm throwing a sneak one. i had to look this up while we were talking do you know where college game day will be this weekend yes it'll be in tennessee again so they're going right back to tennessee they were just there they chose alabama at tennessee obviously gonna be a fun environment obviously a huge game obviously sec games matter over there big network pennsylvania is good though pennsylvania is great they looked awesome this weekend but here were the choices penn state at michigan probably your last good chance to be sure you're looking at an undefeated team in michigan yeah but that's that's a fox game probably well fox has been there

the last couple weeks uh oklahoma state undefeated at tcu tcu coming off that win over kansas they both are undefeated and look at least kind of good you're not gonna have too many chances to go to tcu and then how about this tasty one nc state who all right whatever but at syracuse syracuseuse is a surprising team. Coach Baber is putting them in a good spot. Could go up to Syracuse. You're not going to Syracuse. Come on, you got like every executive in the building went there. I wonder what game is – does ESPN have Alabama-Tennessee this weekend or is it CBS?

I'm not sure which network has the game, but obviously. Sometimes it's the reason why they choose these games, right? No, come on. Kirk can just get on a PJ. It's fine. No, he does. I know he does. But typically it's helpful that the game that they're going to be at.

So, no, it's a CBS game, like I thought. Kirby's going to have Clemson-Florida State this weekend, I would imagine. a CBS game like I thought. Kirby's going to have Clemson-Florida State this weekend, I would imagine. I would say I would be... I would move a game day route more often. Game day will be

in Eugene in two weekends, and I'm very excited for that. They don't pass up any opportunities to come out West. They love coming out West. And Oregon is 11th, and UCLA is 10th, and it would be a great opportunity to come out West. They love coming out West. And Oregon is 11th, and UCLA is 10th. And it would be a great opportunity to come out West. Yeah, it's the second best Pac-12 game of the week.

It's a Fox game, though. It's in two weekends, by the way. This upcoming weekend, Utah beats USC. So we'll have that recap for you. I bet Utah minus three already. It's my favorite. I've been waiting six weeks to wait during this game. It's not changing my opinion.

Do you know USC, Gabe, has recovered every fumble this season on the field? Any fumble. They fumble. The opponent fumbles. They've recovered every fumble through six weeks. That's right. Oh, I think Washington just got another penalty called on them. Shucks.

Discipline. Shucks. Yeah, discipline. Dis yeah discipline discipline what do you think that listen they don't need to work on scoring points they don't need to work on uh intercepting the other team's defense you know what they've only forced one turnover in the last two weeks by the way but insider knowledge you know what they do you know that game where you grease up a watermelon you throw it in the pool yeah that's that's what they do in practice over there so they can learn how to grip the thing that's what's going on with the trojans that's why they pick up every phone okay you learned that here jeff did not know that look yeah you're you will see in two weeks you if the top of the pack 12 is even a conversation for you know the playoff i have a

feeling usc will still be undefeated and all those other teams will have one or two losses, but we'll find out. USC is going to lose this weekend. It's okay. And I think Oregon beats UCLA. Okay. We'll find out.

I'm sure you guys have come here for our discussion about the Pac-12. Well, they're here for your Oregon talk. They want to hear about Oregon. Oregon and UCLA have better offenses than USC does. It's okay to admit that, but that's the way it is. They do. They're ranked higher in efficiency.

They're better. Higher in efficiency. And they score more points. Is that the way you meant? I'm sorry. Is the scoreboards show efficiency stats or do they show points? Well, UCLA and USC score more points too. So that's part of it as well.

Gabe, very quickly before you get out of here, Mets, go. No, I'm not doing that. Don't do that. Why'd you have to do that? Like what the hell? It's hard. It's hard. I worked hard, Jeff.

People know I work hard not to turn my kid into a Mets fan. I said, I'm not doing that to him. Told you I took him to an Angels game. I even, I look the other way when he wears Dodgers gear. Whatever it takes to not let this kid have his life screwed up by the Mets and Jets. Okay? And then I, like an idiot, I talked him into being a Mets fan this weekend and we watched the games. idiot. I talked him into being a Mets fan this weekend and we watched the games. We watched the games Friday and Sunday. And, you know,

I'm damaging my own child with this freaking franchise. Those are both the games they lost, right? Yeah. Uh-huh. They won the Saturday game, right? Yeah, he didn't get to see that because I was at the SC game. It's awful. For the next generation,

we cannot allow Mets fandom to continue. It's ruining families. They're atrocious. That was a little bush what Buck Showalter did. Well, the guy had hot sauce on his ear. Right. Are we just going off what McCutcheon tweeted out?

He had hot sauce on his ear? He had hot sauce on his ear. I'm going with Cutch. For those who missed it, the Padres pitcher Joe Musgrave was shoving it up the Mets. And in the sixth inning, the Mets manager walks in and he asked the umpires to check for foreign substances on Musgrave. And it's Musgrave, right? That's who was pitching last night? Musgrove. Musgrove, sorry, Musgrave. It's Musgrave, right? That's who was pitching last night? Musgrove. Musgrove, sorry, Musgrove. His ear looked like he certainly had something on it.

A former player with him, Andrew McCutcheon, tweeted that some pitchers put hot sauce on their ears to keep them focused in a game. That's right. The umpire went over and touched both ears his face his hair his glove his hat what'd you make of the of the of the arm swipe on the ear before the umpire got there very slick that's some eddie harris type shit right there yeah yeah good reference yeah about four people will get that reference on this podcast. Hank has no idea who Eddie Harris is. No chance.

No, zero. Zero chance of Eddie Harris is. One of my favorite movies of all time. I would say arguably top, maybe best movie of all time. It's my second favorite movie, Shawshank and then Major League. Yeah, and Hank and all you other youths out there no not kamala's husband uh eddie harris is from the movie major league you dummy so go buy yourself a dvd player or vhs player and uh watch the movie before the next episode which you're doing with matt and you're on a roll i think

your picks are going well no oh okay the ravens screwed us again we're oh and three bay in the ravens we're done off the Ravens. If the Chiefs cover tonight, we're 12-12-1. So, I mean, we're not terrible. We're also not winning any money. So that's where we're at right now. All right, guys. Powered by the Varsity Podcast Network.

We'll talk to you guys later in the week. We'll give you some more wagers. The Pachelbel wager is starting to win, though. So if you're listening to the very end of that episode, we're there with those. Take care, everyone. Have a great one.