Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Seattle Takes Over, Sean McVay Regresses & Lamar Jackson Stuns Again

Episode Date: November 12, 2019

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I'm going to get right now. That's right. Let's get it. Start with one. From The Athletic, I'm Jeff Schwartz. Lamar Jackson

has another MVP moment. Dak Prescott and the boys hip thrust their way to another L. And thank God we didn't stay up for a tie on Monday night. It's Tuesday, November 12th. And this is Jeff Schwartz is

smarter than you. Welcome back. Our producer, Gabe Goodwin, who decided to take a vacation during football season, which is a big no-no, but I'm glad you're back, buddy. Cause we have a lot of arguing to do. Well, that's some shade to start with. Well, you mean a big no-no during football season. They got TVs in Hawaii. This is the time of year when you buckle down get to work you can take a vacation during college basketball season right now is the nfl and you missed an entire week now matt was great it was nice to have matt on the free episode today's free episode um but i'm glad to have you back anyway well i'm glad to be here because there's a lot of great football to talk about and i watched a lot of it this weekend.

I was making up for time lost. And I stayed up late on Monday night. And I'm ready to fire. You tell me when. I feel so bad you just stayed up until 9 p.m. on the West Coast to watch a football game. I'll just say this. Before we get going, and we have plenty of topics, right? We'll talk about Monday Night Football.

We'll talk about Lamar Jackson, which will be a topic every single week on this podcast until I finally admit things Gabe wants me to admit. Cowboys. First of all, this was the weekend that we have every year. I call it the any given Sunday type of weekend. We had two double-digit road dogs win in the Falcons and the Dolphins. We had the Titans as a seven-point home dog come back and beat the Chiefs in a weird game.

And we had the weird kind of Browns-Bills game that ended up being a push on that. It just was a weird weekend of football. This is, I think, what makes the NFL so great is that any given Sunday, weird things can happen and teams that aren't supposed to win do win. I think we see this far more in pro football than we do in college football i think it's what makes it um a really great sport yeah i think everyone's survivor pool was thrown out of whack this week i know i lost this week with the saints i'm sure indy miami was a killer for some people like the whole thing just got thrown upside down oh it did and that's i Look, again, there's plenty to like about baseball and basketball and college football, but the

urgency in the NFL, and this is also true in college football, but the urgency in the NFL and how on any given Sunday if you are a Titans fan, you were down 10-0 to the Chiefs. It looked like you weren't going to win the game. You return a fumble. Then the end of the game is so awkward and weird, and you win the game at home.

You're a Pittsburgh fan. You won four games in a row now. You beat the Rams as a home dog and you really dominated the Rams in that manner. The Vikings who looked terrible two weeks ago now look great against the Cowboys. I mean, every week there's something new and last night's game was kind of one of those games. I called

it the best worst game of the year. I mean, Seattle wins an overtime 27-24 game, and it wasn't a pretty game, but it was very entertaining. It sure was. So I'm going to skip over. My job is to give you the takes that people are saying on the Internet. I'm going to skip right over the obvious one, okay?

Russell Wilson is the MVP there. That's what most people are saying. Correct. Let's talk about the Niners, though. The Silicon Valley startup that we all overvalued until last night okay I wrote it I wrote that that they were an overvalued startup at 21 10 in the fourth I will admit I was a bit wrong they played their butts off in the fourth quarter obviously we went all the way to the very end of OT but we saw some flaws in the Niners okay they couldn't get it

done when it mattered so fellas less memes more first downs it Russ exposed you at home the Niners okay they couldn't get it done when it mattered so fellas less memes more first downs it Russ exposed you at home the Niners are not exactly the team we thought they were let's be honest well offensively they came into problems last night which was the odd part of the game defensively they were fine right they scored a touchdown on defense um and I thought you know defensively they were fine offensively is where the concerns were. And this is always a concern we had in the back of our heads, Gabe, was is Jimmy G the guy that can lead you back from a deficit? And I don't think we have a great answer.

Or the answer is really no after the game last night, right? Where he just kind of looked off the 24-46, 248 yards. He was sacked a bunch. Now that's something. The best player last night was Jadavion Clowney, and he took control of the game. Both Niners offensive tackles were coming back from injury, and he probably made them regret coming back for the game. I mean, they looked bad.

Joe Staley, the left tackle, I get it. He's coming off a knee injury, and it sucks to come back from injury. I totally get that, but you can only judge what you see in the field. And it was a rough game. Michael Bogocza, the right tackle as well, had a rough game. They'll be fine on offense in my opinion, but the problem is Jimmy G. And they don't push the ball downfield very often. And I get that some wide receiver drops and whatnot,

but just they don't really drive the ball downfield. And that concerns me in instances like tonight when things aren't really clicking well, you need a couple big plays, and to end the game, they had a three and out that gave Seattle the ball back. And, you know, Jim and she could have been the hero. It could have gone down the field and drove him into field goal range again. I hope your kicker makes the kick this time. But he had a chance to be a hero because Pete Carroll was a coward

for punting with two minutes left in the game. Pete Carroll, by the way, keeps getting rewarded a game for terrible coaching decisions. I don't know how Seattle does it. Seattle wins all their games like this. You're like, are they really the better team? All right, well, they won the game. And Pete Carroll makes the most conservative decisions every single week, and it wins somehow. It's kind of frustrating.

That feels like needless shade thrown at a former Trojan coach. And you should just admit your bias here. He's winning close games with an MVP quarterback. Well, that's why. It's Russell Wilson. And I know he threw the bad pick at the end. But the reason why they're winning is Russell Wilson. I mean, he's absolutely fabulous.

He's, as our notes indicate, 6-0 versus teams who were eight games over 500, which is amazing. How is that a real stat? There's also a stat. I think he's 9-0 as an underdog straight up. I think there's like a stat where he's like 9-0 as an underdog in the AFC West in his career, which is, again, just the most amazing stats. The Seahawks are now 9-0 against the spread.

It's underdog against NFC West teams since Russell Wilson became the starting quarterback. So they always surprise us. They always overachieve. We should stop being surprised. But then let me ask you this. Don't we think that there was something telling here that the Niners lose at home? They were an undefeated team going into this. We kept on asking week after week.

Yeah, but are they really that good? Who they play here's their first real test and they lose it at home in a dramatic game and Jimmy G you mentioned it Simmons mentioned it a lot of people were mentioning it oh and three on three passes that's not just in that final two minutes where they need a first down that's not just him that's coaching to your genius you know boy let's slow down a little bit Kyle Shanahan can call a game that was not their problem in this That's not just him. That's coaching, too. You're a genius, you know, boy coach. Come on. Let's slow down a little bit. Kyle Shannon can call a game. That was not their problem in this game.

They had open wide receivers. They dropped passes. And Jimmy G kind of looks shook, you know, in the pocket. Seattle looks. Give Seattle credit. Their defense played well as well. Let's not. Let's not.

Kyle Shannon is not his fault they lost this game. Look, I think it's ridiculous competition to have all this they were having about whether or not they should have gone for the win with a minute 50 left in the game. Of course they should have gone for the win. Why would you play for a tie? You have a cushion in the division for a reason. Go ahead and try to win the game. You pay Jimmy G all this money to drive down the field and win you the game.

He threw three incomplete passes. One of those guys was open on third down. He missed him. That's on him. You have to trust your quarterback in that spot to make the plays otherwise why would you pay all this money well but now the division is actually an issue and a tie would have kept them a couple games up in the division and that i mean that's the rational choice that's the gambler's choice is play for the tie right i mean they want to win the division because that's a sure bet buy. If you win this division, you're getting a day off in January.

Now it doesn't look like a certainty. And I wonder, you know, what do you think? Is that going to matter? These teams are going to play each other week 17. That game will matter. It will matter. But, look, I feel like the same people that would crush Pete Carroll for punting, like I did.

I can't crush Pete Carroll for punting with two minutes left in the game and then also say that I crushed the Niners for being aggressive. Well, you can. That's how takes work. They don't have to line up. You can't have both. So I think that I'm final coaches being aggressive. I think it sends a good message to your team.

And look, when you're in the moment to Gabe, you often don't think about, you know, what happens tomorrow. Again, the moment you're trying to win that game and maybe NFL teams need to have a guy in the booth. It's like, hey, Kyle Shanahan, if we lose this game, if we tie this game, we're still two games up, and blah, blah, blah. But he's trying to win the football game. And you paid that guy all that money. I get it if you have a rookie quarterback or a young quarterback,

and you don't trust them in that situation. And you run the ball one time, and then you take a shot maybe going down the field. But you pay the guy $30 million a year. He's got to make that play. I mean, obviously I agree with you. Let me ask you this. This is the type of silly stuff you find on Twitter.

I'm curious what you think. Before the game, you know, he and Bosa, the two best players in the team or most important players in the team, are goofing around doing DAC, you know, DAC memes for the camera. They're doing the hip shimmy, trying to play along with the Internet. Is that a distraction? Is that a silly thing to do before a game is that you know is there anything to that that they're goofing around instead of getting ready for the

game or is that just who gives a crap um i think that's more of who gives a crap okay yeah i mean they did bosa played fine yeah i didn't think you were gonna tell me that was a problem but you never know jeff all right so let's go over their schedules because these are two of the toughest schedules left in the nfl and these are two of the best teams, but I don't think their records are going to be what we're expecting. San Francisco has the Cards next week at home. That should be a win, but then they have the Packers at home. They're at the Ravens. They're at the Saints. They play the Falcons, who let's not forget just beat those Saints. They play the Rams at home. That's not a gimme, and then week 17, we mentioned they're back up at Seattle.

That's a very tough stretch. Okay, so 8-1 now. I'm counting maybe 11 wins. I don't know. Seattle, they have a bye next. Then they're at Eagles, home against the Vikings. Tough team. At the Rams, that game will matter.

At the Panthers, they get a gimme against the Cardinals, and then they close against those Niners. Who do you like for this division? Well, I think the answer right now is probably Seattle because they've done it before. I think there is a little bit to having been there and done this before, and the Niners haven't yet, right? So they play the Cardinals this weekend.

They'll win that game. Packers at home will be good. I mean, look, they have to go to Baltimore, go to Orleans. That game against the saints might be for home field advantage. Falcons at home who looked,

had some life this week. I still have to go to Seattle. I think Seattle's lining up to be much easier path. And again, they've done this before. Russell Wilson is not going to be afraid. It's the wrong word. He won't be anxious by the moment because they've done this.

The Niners are still a young team who has not been in this position in a long, long time. I'd say none of these guys outside of what Richard Sherman have ever been in a spot like this before. Joe Staley, I guess, was still there when the Niners went to the Super Bowl. Otherwise, I don't think there's anyone else on that team who's had a lot of years of playoff experience. And this is what they're going to have to do is play playoff-ish games in the regular season.

So I lean the Seahawks here. Okay. Well, so then maybe that little joke I wrote earlier is right. They're still sort of a Silicon Valley startup. It's good. I didn't laugh the first time you sent that in text message, and I'm not really laughing now. It's not like a really big joke. It's more just like a slight reference. I'm not going for a huge laugh.

I don't need an LOL, Jeff. You know what? Let's raise the tension levels a little bit because I don't know if I like your attitude right now. I'm shifting gears. Let's go to the only guy competing with Russ for MVP right now. I'm not going to bother to read to you all of Lamar Jackson's stats or the Ravens record. I think you know those intimately. I'm going to just play for you two pieces of sound. First, this. Okay, so that's obviously Lamar Jackson embarrassing the Bengals for the biggest highlight of the season. Now i'm going to play you one other piece of sound from this weekend

see if you can make out what's going on in this one okay all right jeff i'm gonna help you out with. That's a bunch of people in Cincinnati chanting MVP as their division rival walks off the field. Okay. That's the same thing that happened in Seattle when he beat the supposed MVP, Russell Wilson, people there were chanting MVP. Everyone across this country will acknowledge what I am about to say. Lamar Jackson is a dead serious MVP candidate. Are you on board or not? Yeah, I'm on board.

I'm not stupid. You're just backing down now. I said last week he was an MVP candidate. I even said I think last week he should win the MVP. I was in Hawaii. I wasn't listening. Well, that's your fault. No, of course.

Look, I can think this offense is not going to work in the long run, and someone pointed out to me yesterday, well, Michael Vick and Randall Cunningham. Well, Randall Cunningham has three best seasons, by the way, in the playoffs has scored like six, three, and ten points in their three games in those three seasons. Like, it's a great regular season offense. We had Bernard Pollard on one of my radio shows this week, former safety, and he said, he agreed with me, unprompted, by the way,

because this offense is going to have a tougher time in the playoffs because things hone down as not as easy by the way this stupid tweet that went out yesterday right that had lamar jackson with his career wins with his rush yards with oh just the most random collection of stats put together to prove he's better and on track than other quarterbacks you saw that tweet right yeah first Oh, yeah. First 16 career starts. More wins than Mahomes. More rush yards than LaDainian Tomlinson. Here's one for you, right? Yeah, I can keep going.

At Adam Harstad. Ready? Okay. Wins. Mike Tomczak has 14 wins his first 16 games. Ready? Rush yards. Alfred Morris has 1,600 yards in his first 16 games,

more than Lamar Jackson. How about this, Gabe? Passer rating. You ready? Rob Johnson through 16 games has a higher passer rating than Lamar Jackson. Oh, here's one for you. I don't even know this guy. Eric Hipple, 7.7 yards per attempt through 16 games.

Unbelievable. And ready? Completion percentage, Elvis Gerbach has 64%, Lamar 63. We can put together random stats all we want. It doesn't do anything. The way people stand for Lamar Jackson, I freaking hate that word. Whatever you want to say, stand up for him. Whatever you want to say is wild to me.

Look, Cam Newton, by the way, his rookie year had his first 16 games. In his rookie season, by the way, on a team that was 2-14 the year before, had more yards than, I think 1,000 more total yards than Lamar Jackson's had so far through 16 games. I take it back. Not 1,000 yards. He had more. He had almost,

math, loose math, 300, 400 more. Sorry about that. But nonetheless, we didn't talk about that year as like changing the NFL. I mean, come on, guys. Yes, we did.

Yes, we did. No, because they Yes, we did. Yes, we did. No, because they were 6-10. No, we did not say that after his rookie season. We were absolutely sure that Cam Newton had shook something loose in the NFL sort of mindset. In 2015, we did when he won the MVP. No one was talking about him like this and putting up weird memes in the middle of the season. Weird memes was not even a thing back then. Well was a thing but still it was i was not on twitter in 2011 so i can't tell you what i was i was living twitter i'm sure you were my best person

oh i was there baby and let me tell you twitter was all about camden then too no it wasn't come on dude like like let's look lamar jackson's played great i get it and i'm for him being in the mvp conversation he totally deserves it he's played great. I get it. And I'm for him being in the MVP conversation. He totally deserves it. He's played great in this offense. But we have to understand. This is something I think people do not understand. I saw someone today tweet about, who would you rather build around,

Russell Wilson or Lamar Jackson? Russell Wilson! 1,000 out of 1,000 times. If you build on... We understand, guys. It's part of the conversation. People do not want to have here. They don't want to have this.

The Ravens offense is set up for him perfectly. If you switch him with Russell Wilson and put him Russell Wilson, he is not the same player. And no one in the NFL will disagree with that. But they don't want to talk about that. And I agree. Again, playing great in this offense, deserves MVP consideration. But we've got to slow down with all this hyperbole,

all this crazy stuff we're talking about. It's wild to me, dude. Jeff, who's the greatest band of all time? Number one band of all time. Whoever you would want to listen to forever and ever and ever. I don't know. I don't care. Whatever.

Why don't we just go with the Beatles? Let's just say the Beatles are the greatest band of all time. Does that mean the Rolling Stones aren't awesome? No. But I'm going to argue. We are putting Lamar Jackson on this pedestal that is way too high. People are going out of their way to make up these weird stat comparisons that mean absolutely nothing whatsoever.

You don't need stats. Just watch the man play. I am watching him play. What is he doing? You have to explain this to me because we hear a lot of people talk about, oh, the big eight offense is coming back. He's running Barry Switzer style. We hear all these.

By the way, are you clipping your fingernails in the middle of this show? No, it's my pen. Okay. I hope you're writing down some responses to what I'm asking you here. What is it about this offense that you are not sold on? I am seeing a man run past men. He is not stoppable. He can throw. Okay. That's not stoppable. He can throw.

Okay. That's not an issue. I used to hear, oh, he can't throw. He's not accurate. He's perfectly fine. He's above average in all passing stats. I'm watching a man who's playing. Dude, that's good.

He's better than the other football players out there. He holds onto the ball and gains yards with it. What is wrong with that? Why is that not sustainable i think because i think we've seen and maybe lamar jackson is the different player than any other player who's ever been a quarterback who runs this much but we've seen over time a couple things happens one you get hurt doing this and two eventually your rushing numbers come way down you have to throw the ball from the pocket and that's not what their offense is and look it's

it might win the super bowl this year it might be he might be the one guy out of all the quote-unquote running quarterbacks that is able to sustain 200 carries in a season which is absolutely wild um and he's the guy that and look right now no one can catch him so he can't get hurt if no one can touch him um but that's the concern is the sustainability of this offense over the long run but fine and that you've made that point but are we taking cam newton's 2015 mvp away because now he's banged up and hurt like he was great that year okay and so lamar is great this year so there it's working this year well if if ravens fan get one super bowl and one mvp out of this guy and then and then you know he he has some issues

and maybe people figure out a way to stop him. Would that be so bad? I'm glad you brought up Cam Newton. I'm going to keep talking for a second and just make some other silly points real quick. Feel free to also clean up your cuticles while you keep going here. Okay, so here we go.

This is something that I always find interesting. So in Cam Newton's three playoff games, you ready? In 2015, okay? He rushed 11 times for three yards in one of the wins. He rushed 10 times for 47 yards in another of the wins. And he rushed six times in the Super Bowl for 45 yards. Do you think if those are Lamar Jackson's rushing stats,

the Ravens are winning three playoff games in a game? If he only rushes that many times do i think they win i don't know maybe maybe they've come up with another solution my point really is that the rushing if you look at quote running quarterbacks outside i think outside of capric i haven't looked in a couple weeks on this as well most of the time their rushing stats come down the postseason because things things tighten up right you're playing better defenses you're you're locked in a little bit more in playoff games just just like your mind're locked in a little bit more in playoff games. Just like your mind is locked in a little bit more.

You're playing on the road, right? The weather sucks. There's all these things that matter in the postseason. And so you cannot rely on really right now. Colin Kaepernick obviously is the one person who kind of defies this because the game against the Packers, he rushed for like 1,000 yards in Green Bay. It was a great game. He played great in that game.

But, you know, like we have to understand, like it comes like down. Look at Russell Wilson, okay? In the year that he won the Super Bowl, he's a rushing quarterback, right? You agree that the people – I don't think he's a rushing quarterback, but people look at him and say, wow, great runner, right? Obviously, he did some important things with his life last night. He had 11 total rushing attempts in the three games the year they won the Super Bowl. And time and time again, this keeps being proven that this is the way it goes in the playoffs.

And we don't want to admit it because it's fun to watch this offense in the regular season. But we've seen it. It's hard to explain this. I can just only give you the stats about why I think you kind of like why I think it's this way. So maybe he's, maybe he'll break the mold. Lamar Jackson, only nine rush attempts last year in the chargers game.

They didn't have a lot of plays, but like it, things just like they do. Everything tightens down a little bit in the playoffs. And look, we'll come back and we're doing this podcast all the way through March. So we'll plenty of time to come back in the playoffs and tell me I'm an idiot and tell me I'm wrong.

And I'm for that conversation. If I, if I'm totally wrong about this, come back in the playoffs and tell me I'm an idiot and tell me I'm wrong. And I'm for that conversation. If I'm totally wrong about this, I'll take the L and move on. He's played great right now. He deserves to be in the MVP conversation. But I don't think there are going to be a lot of playoff games like this. Fine, except the people you've been talking about are slower than him. I get it. They didn't run as much, but they're not as fast.

This is Deion Sanders who can throw the ball. That's what this is. Yeah, but that doesn't really – the fastest thing doesn't really – it's how you design an offense. Like, so Cam Newton's in an offense that he was running the football a bunch in the regular season and then did not in the playoffs. Russell Wilson was an offense that ran the ball a bunch in the regular season that ran it less in the playoffs. Russell Wilson was an offense that ran the ball a bunch in the regular season that ran it less in the playoffs.

It's not like it doesn't do with the speed of the player. Well, I mean, it certainly looks like speed once he gets out in the open and they designed plays to get him out on the edges. He's amazingly fast. I'll tell you that. And I think players, I think the Patriots will admit this, they were shocked how fast he was. I agree.

You can't simulate that in practice. There's no way to do it. It's just quickness. That was an amazing run. I'm not going to say it wasn't. They also, by the way, Lesser talked about, but I thought fascinating, they had RG3 on the field with him and ran an option. Remember, it wasn't that long ago when RG3 was this guy.

Yeah, I know what happened. Yeah, no, and that works against my point. But I'm saying now they have fast guys at every position, guys who can throw in a few spots. I just think until it proves to not work, we have to assume it will. I'm just an optimist with this. But we already see it not work in one playoff game. We've already seen it not work.

No, that was the rookie year. I get it. I get it. But we've seen it not work once. And again, look, I'm sure I'll have plenty of people come back to this podcast in February and tell me I'm a moron. And I'm all for that. That's totally fine if it pans out.

But I'm one of these weird people, Gabe, that kind of like believes in things that have worked forever are still going to continue to work and things that haven't worked aren't going to work. Like, I know we like to have new and we like to be excited about the future and whatnot. It's all great for that. But I'm just not. That's not the way I evaluate the NFL. Yeah, okay. And by the way, I end up being more right than wrong most of the time.

So this is one where I could definitely be wrong about it, but I end up being right on a lot of these things because in the end, the NFL kind of corrects itself and you get what you get every single year, which is the same sort of offense, same sort of quarterback, same sort of defense. This wins year after year after year. OK, that's a really fun way to look at life. You probably go to IHOP and order a hamburger and are like bummed out that it isn't the

best hamburger you ever had in your life. Eat the pancakes at IHOP and you'll have a great time. Enjoy Lamar Jackson. And you're just proving my point. So if you if you eat that, if you eat the pocket quarterback that wins every single year, you'll have a great time in the NFL. If you eat the new item, the hamburger on the menu, you might have a bad experience. No.

You just made my point for me. No. If you do the thing they do. The pancake is the pocket passer. It's what IHOP does best. No. It's what the NFL does best. No.

It's the pocket passer. Kelly Murray, by the way. Kelly Murray, by the way. He's playing great right now. Guess why? His three best throws on Sunday were from the freaking pocket. He didn't even move. He took a step and chucked the ball. He had a great throw now. Guess why? His three best throws on Sunday were from the frickin' pocket. He didn't even move. He took a step and chucked the ball.

He had a great throw, by the way. He's not as fast as Lamar Jackson. This doesn't mean he was fast. The fastest, you're thinking, it doesn't matter. Quarterback, it doesn't matter. Tom Brady runs a 5-7. Drew Brees runs a 6-2. It doesn't matter.

Passing is pancakes in the Patriots offense. Running is rooty-tooty fresh and fruity for the Ravens. What are you not seeing about this? I can't do this any longer. We need to switch gears. I'm going to full sweat right now because this is how much fun we're having. All right, let's go to Cowboys. Okay, good.

I'm confused by all the conflicting Cowboys takes I've seen this season, so I'm going to list off a few. Either A, Dak Prescott is MVP despite his head coach, Jason Garrett. I see that a lot. B, Dak Prescott is piling up meaningless stats in Garrett and Moore's new offense. They just can't win this way, okay? Or C, my take, they're all overrated. They wouldn't get this attention if they weren't the Cowboys. They're a 9-7 team. Let move on which one is it is garrett winning despite his coach what's going

on i think i'm sort of with you on this because if you look at the cowboys are you dying right now no so when i talk fast i like i kind of like have to burp sometimes i kind of have to like hold it like a little hold it in a little bit that's what's happening um thanks for that insight yeah sorry about that um i like to i like to i have to kind of hold it in i've been known actually i've i burped a couple times on the radio before like just in the middle of talking it's uh it's it's a talent i have all right so continuing um here's why dakin look he's like number one for qbr and like whatever he's like all these stats and this is part of it too right oh and now you don't all these stats. This is part of it too, right? Oh, and now you don't care about stats all of a sudden.

No, no, no. Here's part of it too is that there's one other stat I didn't even realize that even exists. MVP voters aren't looking at like B-A-B-I-P-P-A-2-3-4-5. They're not looking at this stuff. They're looking at wins and losses. And look, wins and losses is not a quarterback stat. I get that. But if you look at Dak Prescott this year, they've beaten the Giants

who have, what, two wins, right? The Redskins have a single win. The Dolphins have a single win. The Giants, again, have two wins who they beat. They beat twice. They beat the Eagles. Yes, that was a good game. But if you look at Dak Prescott's worst games, they're against the best teams he's played. He played bad against New Orleans.

He played bad against the Packers. He didn't play terribly well against the Jets, who's not even a good team. He didn't play terribly well against the Eagles in that win as well. So if you're looking at all his stats, you have to take into context the season they're having. And a 5-4 team, leading a 5-4 team, I should say, as a quarterback, that's not getting you in the MVP conversation. I mean, if the idea is just best passer in the NFL, I could go back many years.

Like last year, I went back and looked. Ben Roethlisberger was third in like EPA expected points added and also QBR. So he should be the third for MVP voting? No, wins and losses do matter to this conversation, whether you want to talk about it or not. And the Cowboys, like I said, have beaten one quality team, have lost to the three other quality teams they've played.

And in those games, it really hasn't been pretty, right? The Packers were up huge. The offense couldn't move the ball in New Orleans. He gets a backup quarterback. And then last week, you know, against the Jets, you mean the Vikings, they like looked okay. Now, I get it. The offense, I think, does not call very well.

I think they're way too conservative. I think there's plenty of issues. I think if you put Dak Prescott with Andy Reid, he'd be in the consideration for MVP each and every year. But all that plays into account when we talk about MVP voting. Well, OK, but so I'm not even concerned about MVP voting because I think he's got about seven guys to pass for that. I don't I don't think we need to discuss him as an MVP any longer. I'm just wondering, is Dak Prescott the reason that the Cowboys can be good, but his coach holds him back?

Or is Dak Prescott the result of having a coach who helps him pile up stats? I'm confused. I think that the coach holds him back. I don't think he's stat pads. Pat, what? Is that? Yeah, stat pad. Pat your stats.

How do you want to say it? Pat your stats. How do you say it? Pad your stats? Pad your stats. That's how you say it, right? Pads his stats? It's better than stat your pads.

Yeah, there we go. Yeah, there we go. I was like, that didn't sound right. So, no, I don't think he does that um but look you you have to win these games i know they're not all his fault but you cannot lose the jets in in that life you cannot lose the saints with a backup quarterback teddy bridgewater like you can't have these you can't lose to the Vikings when Kirk Cousins is like, he was 2-9-1 entering this game

playing against 500 teams. He was 6-13 in primetime games. You cannot lay an egg. And look, he played well, Dak Prescott did in this game. But still, the wins have to show for part of this as well. And I know it's not his fault, but that's the way we judge MVP voting.

If it's best player, best quarterback, best passer, that's not part of it. So I think that his coaching staff does hold him back. I love to see him with a progressive coach. And it's interesting about Jason Garrett, and I know some Cowboy fans despise him, but a lot of Cowboys fans, in my mentions, Gabe, do not blame him for the offense. And it's crazy because he's an offensive coach. He is a former quarterback. That would be like saying the Patriots who played, you know, who Bill Belichick is the defensive mind. Their defense isn't playing well and you're blaming his son or Jared Mayo for calling the plays. No, you're

blaming Bill Belichick. This is on Jason Garrett for the offense not being good. He's a former quarterback. It's on him. Okay, so I guess I'm sort of still grappling with this issue of where culpability is. I don't think I've ever heard of Dak Prescott, if not for Jason Garrett. Yet Jason Garrett is the reason that Dak Prescott isn't achieving all of his potential. That doesn't make sense to me. I think Jason Garrett is just

good enough. Like he's not Dak Prescott's just good enough. Isn't that what they are? That's my they're nine and seven. They're just good enough. Right. But but the question is, I think is that we want to see we think that could be could be even better i don't have a better coach i guess i'm just saying i don't think that i don't think that their coach is a super bowl coach i don't think their quarterback is a super bowl quarterback i don't i don't know why everyone's trying to tie themselves in knots to convince themselves otherwise and i for one i'm ready to just move on from the cowboys so why don't we and let's go to another guy who's maybe been a little too hyped in the past. All right?

There's one thing we can agree on today, Jeff, I think is this. We love Colin Cowherd. He's a guy we like to listen to. I think Colin summed this up very nicely. On behalf of the whole internet, Colin tweeted, the Sean McVay genius card has expired.

This, of course, after the Rams went to five and four, losing to the Steelers. The Steelers were dead a few weeks ago, but now the Rams are third in their division after the loss. And we just talked a lot about that division. It ain't going to be easy to beat either of those teams. Did we all buy a little too much McVay stock a little too early? You were one of the people who thought he was a genius. Well, I don't know if I use those exact words. I'm going to say you said he was a genius. Well, I don't know if I used those exact words. I'm going to say you said he was a genius.

Fair enough. I do think his genius card has expired, and I'll tell you why. It's not really the losses. It is how they're losing. So last year, it was like week 14, they played the Lions, and their kind of offense kind of stalled out. And then they played some crappy team and beat them by a bunch, and then they played the Bears their kind of offense kind of stalled out. And then they played some crappy team and beat them by a bunch. And then they played the Bears and Eagles and got kind of stalled out again.

And then the Patriots obviously shut them down. So the issue I'm seeing with the Rams and why I think his genius card is being revoked is he's made no adjustments. Like the offense looks exactly the same as it's always been. And we look at the Saints and the Chiefs and the Niners. And their offenses evolve all the time. They're new plays, new wrinkles, new ways to attack teams. And McVay doesn't do any of that. It looks like the same offense each and every week with obviously some game plan stuff, but a lot of 11 personnel, a lot of the same runs, a lot of the same play action pass, the same protections. And there seems to be no adjustment whatsoever to any sort of new concepts.

And then you look at the offensive line, and this is something where their offensive line has not played well, but it's kind of a poor excuse considering the Niners have played four games without both their tackles. The Chiefs have played games without their left tackle, their right guard, their left guard. Then my brother, by the way, congratulations to him.

He played almost 8,000 snaps in a row before missing one. He tweaked his knee on Sunday. He missed a little bit of time, but he played the second half. That's an amazing feat. Do we realize how hard that is, Gabe? Oh, I wanted to give this some real time later. We can get into it now. No, we can do it later.

I wrote an article a couple years ago listing all the ways you can miss a snap in the NFL. And so we'll go over that in a little bit. It's incredible. It really is. And so I want to give them some, some,

some, some time on that. So, you know, all these teams function with injuries and with poor play. And like the Rams never have found a way to figure it out. Their run game is two sideways with their offensive linemen. Don't get any push.

So you cannot have a lateral moving run game when your offensive lines getting pushed back in the pocket. And they just seem like dysfunctional on offense. And so I think the genius card is expired. Okay, so hold on. There's a couple things you said that are a little beyond my depth. I needed help. Just that last point about the lateral run game and the push.

Just walk us through that a little bit. All right, so the way they run their outside is really on zone plays. So on zone plays, you'll often have some double teams, a lot of one-on-one blocks. And the way you stop a zone game is penetration up the field. So if the defense gets up the field against a zone, your back has to alter his angle, right? And so when you are blocking, let's say you're running outside

zones you're trying to get outside the the really the the outside leg of the tackle let's say it's going to the right okay your right guard has a one-on-one block your right guard cannot get pushed back right right if he gets pushed back it slows the timing up of the back and he misses the hole right and he's got to cut really the The problem is then what happens in an outside zone specifically is if he gets pushed back in the line of scrimmage, he can go laterally down the line of scrimmage is pretty much fine. But if you get pushed back at all,

it slows your backup and the backside defensive end who's not being blocked in outside zone can run the play down from behind. Yeah. So you string the play out. So when you're getting pushed back like that in the zone run game

when you're a bunch of your one-on-one blocks, it screws the timing up outside zone. So they're moving more horizontally than vertically. When you have runs, gap runs, duo, double, things where you want to push guys up the field, you build in double teams, then you can move vertically up the field and you don't have some of those issues you have with those one-on-one zone blocks. If you run plays that are quote-unquote gap plays, even man schemes,

things like that, where you isolate certain parts of the offense to attack, you don't have to worry about, well, you still don't want to get penetration up the field, but if you do, the bat can figure out where to go just based off the path of the play and the timing of the play. So they just really haven't adjusted to doing like new type of runs. They kind of, they throw them in there every now and then, but we see like the best offense in the NFL, the Niners. I still consider them good.

The Saints, the Chiefs don't do this as much anymore, but the Patriots, they have many different runs and the Chiefs do as well. They don't run the ball as well as those teams do, but they have different sort of run, even though even the Ravens, the Ravens have a multitude of different runs. It just gives the defense things to look at and study for, prepare for. And if they do call the wrong thing on this certain formation, you can be gashed.

But the Rams don't do that very much. They kind of run the same stuff all the time. And teams have figured them out. And they figure out the 6-1 defense to run. And the Rams just haven't adjusted to what's happening to them and maybe it's personnel maybe McVay doesn't feel comfortable adjusting or maybe it is Sean McVay who just hasn't found a way to adjust yet okay that was exactly what this show is for because you just you just unpacked all the the truth behind just a simple take that most of

us are capable of now let me ask you this you said 11 man um a while back and you sort of personnel yeah 11 personnel so so just explain that a little bit more kind of oh yeah same level of detail please so okay so those um personnel groupings in the nfl are how many running backs and tight ends and wide receivers you have in the field and so the rams forever have run a ton of stuff out of 11 personnel so 11 is one running back and one tight end. And the wide receivers aren't counted in that group. They're counted afterwards. So like you have one running back,

one of the three wide receivers, you have five skill player, five linemen, five skill players, one quarterback. So 12 personnel is one running back, two tight ends. 22 is two and two,

right? 23 is two running backs or 10 ends. 13 is one running back, three tight ends. Those are about what you're going to get. You might get some 20 personnel, two running backs, no tight ends. Arizona will do some of that stuff. Or you get 10. Arizona runs a ton of 10, which is one running back, four wide receivers. So when you're in 11 personnel, you're very limited in what the runs

you can do, which is a ton of, really a lot of zone because you don't have a bunch of tight ends. You don't have extra guys that can block. And it's interesting. You know, we talk, a lot of analytics people will talk about, hey, you want to run into light box counts. I'm all for that. I understand that. But the interesting thing is Arizona right now is the number three rushing team, according to Football Outsiders.

And they became really good when they added tight ends back in the formation. Because sometimes it's okay to have a tight end block a small linebacker. And you can do more with tight ends. You can motion them across you can swing you put them in a wing have one motion back in the backfield you can run a counters and powers and you can still run zone and isos all the stuff when you only have one tight end you're very limited to what you can do you can really run power to that side of the tight end one back power or run zone away from him that's or you run zone to him, like, or do, it's not much you can do. And I think,

and we found out too in the NFL that having 12 personnel in the field, which is basically one running back and two tight ends, that's a great personnel grouping to pass, to pass out of. Cause a lot of defenses can't match up to two tight ends, especially two athletic ones. And that's a way to, you run the ball,

then you play actually pass to 12th personnel, and you get a lot of big gains. They really don't do that. So I think this weekend they ran like 92% of their plays out of 11 personnel. It's just not good. Too predictable. All right.

Well, I don't have any smart responses to any of that. You'll notice I'm kind of jaw agape when you get into football detail like that. It's a lot harder for me to counter any of that than it was the Lamar Jackson point. All I had to do there was look up a 40 time. By the way, it's 44.34. I looked it up too, yeah. But wow.

Okay, so bottom line, you just said all of that. I imagine if you were sitting in a meeting room with Coach, he'd nod along and understand every damn word of that. None of that's a surprise to Sean McVay. So I guess we can end this segment on why doesn't he see what you just said? What's the problem? Well, I mean, I think he probably does, but, you know, either he doesn't think Goff can do it. They don't really have the personnel to get out of 11 very often, which is part of the problem as well. But also, look, it takes a little bit of self-reflection and, you know, really a good amount of adaptability to change who you are.

And go to college real quick. You know, LSU and Orgeron, they did an amazing job changing who he was, right, on offense. He decided after last year he wasn't going to have a bad offense anymore and he's a defensive line coach all right like he's not any sort of guru yeah he's a guy that wants to run the football and play defense he's like look we're not doing that anymore he went out and found two good offensive coordinators quarterback coach offensive and off-scorer and changed his entire approach to his team i give him so much credit for that because a lot of times, coaches do not have that self-awareness to be different, to want to adapt.

So it has made Bill Belichick, Andy Rehans, all these coaches excellent because they adapt on the fly. And I haven't seen McVay do that yet. And I thought after, I think what makes this a little bit tougher is we thought after the Super Bowl, when he did get shut down, he would change who he was. He just never did that. Yeah, he had a lot more than half. He had a whole offseason.

And they came back kind of looking like a weaker version of what they were already doing. It's weird. Because he's obviously a smart dude who spent a lot of time learning the game. He's been in it since he's like a teenager. So it's weird to me that you can so quickly identify the problem and he hasn't and he can't fit i think he i assume he has he's just i don't know if he knows i just don't know if he knows like how to well you're saying self-awareness and looking in the mirror i think the problem might be that when he's looking in the mirror he's working on getting just the perfect five o'clock shadow on that beard of his.

Yeah, he's just like I've never seen someone have a more perfectly defined whoops a daisy beard before. It makes no sense. Speaking as a guy who has some scruff, it's hard for it to be both random and perfectly manicured at the same exact time. And he's figured it out. He has. He has figured it out. That's really funny. Hey, this is Max Olson from The Athletic.

Thanks for listening. Hope you check out my podcast, The Sellouts, with Mitch Sherman. We talk Nebraska football every week. Obviously, it's been a tough season for them, but you can listen to our breakdown of what's wrong with the Huskers on Mondays and on Fridays. And hope you'll check it out. Thanks so much.

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That's $5 off your first order when you download the DoorDash app from the app store, enter the code SMARTER. Let's move the line. Let's play a little over-under game. Some of these are real, most probably made up. I'll start with our guy Patrick Mahomes. I want to know, over-under .5 playoff wins for

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs this year. I'm going to go over still. They get a lot of guys back from injury and I think they'll be fine you know the defense took a real step back i was disappointed to see but um i think i think they'll be fine i trust that that pat will win a playoff game knows what he's doing uh remember that was a weird game andy reed is now one in nine against um the titans in his career it's

like a weird thing that was a weird game i'm going. I trust him. I'll be honest with you. I just turned it like away from it and figured, well, they won. This wasn't pretty. They're not going to be thrilled, but Pat's back. He looked pretty good. They won the game. And then like two hours later, I saw the score. What the hell? What happened? Figured I'd wait until you told me. So I don't know, man. I mean, they making the playoffs is now a question winning a game in the playoffs i'm i really i can't take that over i'm sorry i'm glad you're confident i'm not uh let's move along to one of the teams that might be playing them or beating them i want to know afc teams still in playoff contention over under 15.5 basically every single team but the bengals

is still alive. Yeah, I mean, look, it's a weird conference this year. I think that we entered the year thinking the AFC was going to be really good and maybe better than the NFC because their top two teams, the Patriots and the Chiefs, were just that good. And the Chiefs have probably fallen off. You know, look at it right now. I mean, you know, I think Buffalo still has a chance, even though they're not very good

and they have a tough record down the stretch. You know, Pittsburgh right now is actually in the wild card if we're talking right now. I do think that Oakland has a chance. Indy, you need what's-his-faceback, Brissette. How about the Titans, man? The Titans just keep, they're just like

the most 809- team of all time. Yeah, the Browns, I mean, the Browns just, the Browns have an easy schedule down the stretch too. They have a chance to be in this as well. The one team that I think is defraud is the Bills. The Bills aren't very good. You've been consistently crapping on the Bills and they've been losing since you've been bringing it up.

Consistently right. Yes, you have been right about that one. Thank you. I will give you that. I guess the right. Yes, you have been right about that one. Thank you. I will give you that. I guess the question really is, did that Steelers win, which pushes them into the playoffs currently, sort of reset us on them for the back half of the season?

They've got their quarterback. Are we ready to just say the Steelers are good? I think we are, at least defensively. Offensive offensively i think they still have a lot to work on but i think defensively yes they should definitely be a conversation so when this all shakes out we're gonna see one team out of the south one team out of the west and then our wild cards coming from the north and the east is that what we think bills and stealers likely unless the titans sneak in with the texans withinans. I think the Raiders have a good chance. And the Raiders, that's right.

Raiders might win that division, dude. I hate to say it. No, shut up. They're not winning that division. Okay. Let's talk about a revenge game. Look forward to next week, which we don't usually do on this show, but I figured how could we go a whole week without talking about the Patriots?

I want to know. Tom Brady touchdown passes versus his rival Eagles. Over under three and a half. Is Tom going to pour it on? Well, geez, I mean, their offense has been so poor lately. I would say under. Really? Okay.

Both teams off a bye. I think I'll go under. No, no. Q Harry coming back is a big addition for them because of his ability to kind of stress the field. They need someone to do that. And so I would go with under still. Really? Okay, see, so I'm going to go with the over because Tom Brady,

who never seems to care or give away his feelings on anything, will admit that this is a real, like, he has a chip on his shoulder for the Eagles. So he said the other day in one of his appearances, you assume I'm over it? Come on now. That's a lot of mental scar tissue from that year. We changed a lot.

They changed a lot. Totally different circumstances. Huge game for us. He's talking about obviously losing to the Eagles in the Super Bowl. I think we know that they like to run it up when they have a reason, and I think this is a game he has a reason. Yeah, but Eagles are good. I don't know if he'd be able to run the score up.

Okay, well, let's keep an eye on that one. That feels like a game that everyone will be talking about in a week, so we'll be ready for it on Tuesday. Okay, teams Odell Beckham Jr. is rumored to be traded to by the end of the season. Yeah, honestly. So you're going over 15.5. I want it. Half the league, I feel feel like has been a rumor

is there anything to any of this nonsense are we just throwing out names now well i think that i think they're gonna try and move off into the offseason you really do yeah but you like i mean you know him a bit and you've been around him and played with a lot of guys who were in the locker room with him like he's not a bad locker room guy no he's not but they're not they're not i said this when it happened you're not winning with with these flashy parts you need to get yourself some offensive linemen stop worrying about having too many wide receivers so you think the browns after one year will accept like they were this darling of the media they had all the exciting players i'm sure they were getting all the instagram likes although those don't count any longer like they were they were

on their way and he was a big part of it and you're saying they would abandon that uh yes they're on their way he hasn't played very well i mean it's not his fault but he hasn't thrown the football i mean he's i think he's gone for sure well he got thrown the ball this week and he got shut down i mean that kid trey white just sort of covered him i mean that that was that and they also and they know if he gets the step that he's used to getting just pull him to the ground like take the penalty it's fine all right so, just pull him to the ground. Take the penalty. It's fine. All right. So we're going to have to put up with that for the rest of the season.

Here's what I want to know. And you don't have to name names. Oh, I have an amazing story, by the way. It's going to make this podcast worth waiting until right now. Oh, okay. Great. I want to know, and this is a departure from the NFL for a moment. I want to know, and this is a departure from the NFL for a moment.

Teammates of yours, you know, used edible THC during the season over under 9.5. Zuri is just chuckling in the background. We're in California. It's legal here. If Zuri's on edibles, that's not a problem. I want to know, though, in your playing days, was that a thing people did? Obviously, Dion Waiters in the NBA had a panic attack and I don't mean to laugh at him but he had a panic attack on the team plane when he took an edible and probably got a little paranoid um has that ever happened around you oh yeah so we were flying back from uh Oakland I was playing the Chiefs and uh we're about halfway

there and I'm sitting at the so the player – so on our plane in Kansas City, the coaches sat in first class, and like the next part of the plane was the staff and all the people we traveled with. And the back half, the back third was all the players. So for the first 10 minutes, Andy Reid was very much like a players coach a lot of the time. We worked hard in training camp, and we worked hard in practice, but he took care of us otherwise.

So one of the things he took care of us with was he'd come through the back of the plane 10 minutes into the flight and just leave us alone. He'd come by, shake everyone's hand, win or loss, and leave us alone. Because guys like to drink, and they like to hang out in the back of the plane. I've been on other teams where the coach actually sat with the player. Tom Coughlin sat in the player's seat. What a loser. Really?

Yeah. That is the nerdiest thing I've ever heard. With his wife often, too, by the way so no comment on any of that keep moving so those those planes were very subdued all right so we did put the veterans in first class it was awesome i sat in first class all right so um so andy reed walks through the airplane well okay so i have i'm in at the front of the player section i'm sitting there i have on. Listen to – we'll watch a movie or whatever. And I hear this commotion behind me, and I don't really know, like, what it is. And it keeps going.

So I get up. I turn around. I take my headphones off. And there's a player of ours, and he's losing his mind. He's like, hey, I'm so hot. I need some water. I hand him my water. He, like, just jumps over his – he dumps it over his face.

He's like, I'm going to – I'm freaking out, man. We've got to lay in the gonna i'm freaking out man we gotta lay in the plane we gotta lay in the plane like he's freaking the fuck out so um i i get a flight attendant i'm like yo i'm just i'm not doing this like you're just go talk to this guy so i sit back down and the you know the doctor's on board the trainers come back and talk to him and whatnot and uh he's still like hallucinating and i think he eventually barfs and in the bathroom and everything all right so i'm like what i'm like what what so you know he leaves and then i kind of go in the back like what's going on and it reeked like a reek of weed in the back of the plane and he had uh he ate an entire edible brownie ah but he'd never had one before uh-huh and he was also drinking a bunch so um he and i was like guys like dude coach lets us like

have our own time back here like you can't we can't be doing this you can't be having the back of the plane smell like a dispensary like you can't if we can't do this um so that player you know lo and behold he was not on our team much longer. Oh, really? Yeah. I've seen it happen before. Yeah, it was wild. And Alvin was pissed because we thought we were going to have to land in Denver because he was wigging out too much. But they calmed him down and got him off the plane.

Wow. So he was like the dude who screws up the bachelor party. You know? Like everyone's dealt with that guy before. Normally you just dump him back at the hotel and tuck him in, tuck him in and that's everyone else goes on their night. But if you're on a plane, you're kind of screwed. Was there anyone you said you got the flight attendant to help out? Was there any like big guy who might want to help just sort of pin him down and talk to him?

That's not my job. The trainer's job. Doctor's job. So they just made him puke and hope that he'd get better? I don't know what they did. I put my headphones on and went back to my movie. It's not my job to worry about him. All right. Well, I mean, there's a whole lot you could do. You just got to wait it out. And, you know, some people have been there before. Dion Waiters, I guess.

I have not been there before. So. Well, that's all right. Yeah. OK, let's move to social and this by the way is shifting gears like you teased it earlier uh and i i really like i want to just give you the floor here um your brother uh did have this just incredible incredible streak snapped i know he's proud of it i know you as his older brother are proud of it um just walk us through this people were tweeting you about it you were making jokes about it but i know it's serious too so go ahead well i mean it's it's so uh mitch more personal chiefs mitch schwartz um he had 7,894 snaps in a row in a row in the regular season if you include the playoffs it's probably like 8,500 something like that um that's remarkable because um there are many ways that you can miss

a snap in the nfl obviously injury is one of them but i i wrote many ways that you can miss a snap in the NFL. Obviously, injury is one of them. But I wrote down the ways you can do this. You ready? Your shoe just busts. I've seen guys, like, blow their shoes out for a play, right? Your jersey ripped. I had a jersey one time that ripped almost the entire length from the armpit all the way down to my butt.

And luckily, it happened on third down. So, I sewed my jersey up on the sidelines. And I was able to get back in the game you know your helmet buckle just bust and you can't buckle your chin strap you're out of play your your chin strap just tears i've seen guys tear their chin strap out for a play your face mask gets bent or breaks out for a play your pants rip seen that happen before i've seen actually guys go number two in their pants before. It happens. Like, you're out. Your knee brace or your elbow brace just completely busts. You're out for a play.

Obviously, injuries are part of it, too, as well. Dislocated finger, you're out for two plays and you come back in. Contact lens, out for a play. You're poked in the eye, out for a play. You'll take a shot to the groin, out for a play. And look, and this happened to my brother last year. play. Take a shot to the groin, out for a play. And look, and this happened to my brother last year. I'm kind of glad

the streak is over for one reason. That's because he's had to play meaningless games before. But last year, they played someone week 17. No, it was two years ago. They played Denver when Pam Holmes first start. They didn't need to play that game because it didn't matter.

Their seed was locked in. And I originally told my brother he wasn't going to play that week, but he ended up having, he ended up kind of asking to play, so his streak didn't die. So there's a way you can lose your streak as well. I had a teammate once miss one snap in all of one season. I won't mention the season, so you guys don't look him up. I don't think he cares anymore.

But he missed one snap the entire season because he was late getting back from the bathroom because he had to take a number two. He just missed one snap. He just was late. He had to go to the bathroom, and he was late. You know, guys, now the new stadiums have bathrooms behind the benches.

A lot of them don't. The old stadiums, you had to go back in the locker room to go even pee if you don't want to pee on the sidelines. So there's many ways to miss a snap. There's luck involved with it as well. And so Mitch has been fortunate, came to an end, but he played the second half. I think he'll be fine.

And it's really, it's incredible. It's incredible he's able to do this. That brings me to Joe Thomasomas had almost 10 000 snaps uh really proud of him and um he did a great job yeah well i'm glad you said all those things and you know i don't know your brother but you know i know you pretty well and i know we're saving we're saving the part of the schwartz podcast for when he retires it's gonna be lit dude well i mean so it's gonna take a while because this dude won't get off the field. I mean, it's really incredible. Yeah, but when the podcast happens, my brother is very opinionated,

and some of them are interesting takes. So we'll have some fun. I look forward to it. Congrats to him, and I hope he starts another really long streak. And obviously he's a great player, but I would have to imagine that the influence that has on the other players around him, that literally you cannot take a play off, that's a cliche in football right um but it's true with him and it must have an impact on some of the other guys i have to yes because they they know they can't like

you know take you know i don't want to miss time mitch doesn't miss any time even a blowout he doesn't leave a blowout nope and you know don't poop during the game guys or if you do do it in your pants because we got football to play. Well, listen, Jeff, it's awesome that he was able to keep that streak alive as long as he did. And I'm glad you pointed out and explained it to our fans. And I'm sure now you'll still get some tweets about, you know, Cleveland or whatever. That's what our people tend to do. But it's an awesome thing.

Browns fans are still bitter. I don't know why. All right. Well, we know why. Let's wrap it up. We got more shows this week are still bitter. I don't know why. All right. Well, we know why. Let's wrap it up. We got more shows this week, and then you and I are back next week. But let's say goodbye for now. You sign us off, and we'll see you next week.

Yeah, of course. Thank you for joining us. This is our free episode of Tuesday's iTunes Google Podcast. You can find us on The Athletic as well, Athletic Pod. We'll be back on Thursday, as Gabe said. I hope you guys enjoy. You can leave comments, of courseic as well, AthleticPod. We'll be back on Thursday, as Gabe said. I hope you guys enjoy. You can leave comments, of course, rate, review, subscribe, and hit me up on Twitter, at Jeff Schwartz.

If you want to find Gabe as well, you can tweet me, and I'll make sure to tag him. This is what I have in the past. You guys have sent me tweets before. So thanks for joining us. Have a good couple of days. Talk to you guys Thursday.